"And I . . . from the first moment . . . I'll tell you . . . If I looked out of a door . . . It was all like sand. . . . But to the half left a little bubbling up of water. That could be trusted. To keep on for ever. . . . You, perhaps, won't understand." She said: "Yes! I know!" "They were seeing landscapes. . . . Sand dunes; close-cropped. . . . Some negligible shipping; a stump-masted brig from Archangel. . . ." "From the first moment," he repeated. She said: "If we _could_ wash out . . ." He said, and for the first moment felt grand, tender, protective: "Yes, you _can_," he said. "You cut out from this afternoon, just before 4.58 it was when I said that to you and you consented . . . I heard the Horse Guards clock. . . . To now. . . . Cut it out; and join time up. . . . It _can_ be done. . . . You know they do it surgically; for some illness; cut out a great length of the bowel and join the tube up. . . . For colitis, I think. . . ." She said: "But I _wouldn't_ cut it out. . . . It was the first spoken sign." He said: "No it wasn't. . . . From the very beginning . . . with every word. . . ." She exclaimed: "You felt that. . . . Too! . . . We've been pushed, as in a carpenter's vice. . . . We couldn't have got away. . . ." He said: "By God! That's it. . . ." He suddenly saw a weeping willow in St. James's Park; 4.59! He had just said: "Will you be my mistress to-night?" She had gone away, half left her hands to her face. . . . A small fountain; half left. That could be trusted to keep on for ever. . . . Along the lake side, sauntering, swinging his crooked stick, his incredibly shiny top-hat perched sideways, his claw-hammer coat tails, very long, flapping out behind, in dusty sunlight, his magpie pince-nez gleaming, had come, naturally, Mr. Ruggles. He had looked at the girl; then down at Tietjens, sprawled on his bench. He had just touched the brim of his shiny hat. He said: "Dining at the club to-night? . . ." Tietjens said: "No; I've resigned." With the aspect of a long-billed bird chewing a bit of putridity, Ruggles said: "Oh, but we've had an emergency meeting of the committee . . . the committee was sitting . . . and sent you a letter asking you to reconsider. . . ." Tietjens said: "I know. . . . I shall withdraw my resignation to-night. . . . And resign again to-morrow morning." Ruggles' muscles had relaxed for a quick second, then they stiffened. "Oh, I say!" he had said. "Not that. . . . You couldn't do that. . . . Not to the _club_! . . . It's never been done. . . . It's an insult. . . ." "It's meant to be," Tietjens said. "Gentlemen shouldn't be expected to belong to a club that has certain members on its committee." Ruggles' deepish voice suddenly grew very high. "Eh, I say, you know!" he squeaked. Tietjens had said: "I'm not vindictive. . . . But I _am_ deadly tired: of all old women and their chatter." Ruggles had said: