"Oh! There isn't very much to tell. I enjoyed it all enormously, of course." "What did you enjoy most?" "Oh! some of the smaller towns--Rapallo, for instance.--Oh! yes, and Bologna was fascinating." "Not Rome and Florence?" "In a way. But there were too many tourists. Rome one's got to stay in, I'm sure. That first view was disappointing." "And how did Roddy--if I may call him Roddy--enjoy it?" "Immensely, I think. He liked the country better than the towns though." "You saw lots of pictures?" "Heaps. Roddy enjoyed them enormously. I'd no idea he knew so much about them. Oh! it was all lovely, and such colours, such light--London seems like a cellar, even in June." There followed then a pause that swelled and swelled between them until it resembled some dreadful monster, horribly stationed there to separate them. Christopher looked at Rachel, but she refused to meet his eyes. "I've lost her. I shall never see her again!" he thought with despair. Two years ago he would have gone to her, put his arms around her, kissed her and drawn from her at once her trouble. He could not do that now. "Your turn, Dr. Chris dear. Tell me about your holidays." "Oh, mine don't count. I went to Brittany first, then up to St. Andrews with another man to play golf." "You're looking splendidly well and you're thinner. What was Brittany like?" "Delightful. Have you ever been there?" "Never. I must get Roddy to take me. Just suit him, I should think." To Christopher's intense relief tea was brought. He came to the table and then, for an instant, he did catch her eyes, saw tears in them, and behind the tears some appeal to him to help her. Her hand was shaking. "How silly of me to spill your tea. I'm so sorry. Let me pour it back...." "Rachel----" he began, but a servant entered with something and he waited. When they were alone again, standing over her as though he were afraid that she would escape him, he plunged. "Rachel dear. We're talking as though we'd never met before. You've never been shy with me like this. If marriage is going to make a stranger of you, I shall break young Seddon's neck----" "No," she said in a voice that was between laughter and tears. "Of course, Dr. Chris. Things are just the same between us, only, only--well, I'm married and--one thing and another, you know." He caught both her hands. "You're perfectly happy?" She met his eyes. "Perfectly." "Happier than you've ever been in your life?" She dropped her eyes. "Happier than I've ever been in my life." "And you'll come to me just the same if there's any kind of trouble?" "Of course." "You promise?" "I promise." They talked then, for a little time, of other things. But he was not satisfied. Rachel's soul, caught away in alarm, was still beyond his grasp. At last, feeling that the moments were precious and that Roddy might at any instant appear, he sat down on the sofa beside her. "Rachel dear. Something's worrying you. You won't tell me?"