To all outward seeming they might have been married for months, and reached that happy state in which perfect community of taste and understanding doubles the pleasure of any common pursuit, as they followed the stream and tempted the trout in its pools and shallows. Beatrix was as eager and interested as if she had been fishing with her father, and as merry and talkative. He loved her so like that, and was so happy with her that he sometimes forgot how much he loved her. He seemed to forget it altogether when at last he hooked a big fish, and drew it towards the bank, and she was not clever enough in manipulating her landing net. He ordered her about as if she had been a small boy, and rather a stupid one, and when the fish was landed and was lying on the grass with its gills opening and shutting, she burst out laughing. "If _that's_ the way you're going to treat me!" she exclaimed. She looked so adorable, her face flushed and her eyes sparkling, that all his prudent resolves vanished. He caught her and kissed her, just once, and let her go. "That's the way I'm going to treat you," he said, "and you've got to learn to put up with it." She was taken by surprise. She looked at him, and then she smiled. "I think I shall learn in time," she said. CHAPTER XIII PARIS Grafton went over to Paris to fetch Barbara, and Caroline and Young George went with him. It was decided almost at the last minute. Young George had no particular opinion of foreign parts, and was enjoying every moment of his time at home. But Jimmy, who came over on Friday to pay a formal call of congratulation to Beatrix, advised him not to be an ass. "A couple of days in Paris clears the cobwebs off a man's brain," he said. "England's the best place in the world, of course, but you're apt to get provincial if you don't run over to France occasionally. You see things from a different point of view." So Young George was persuaded. They would only be away from Saturday till Monday, and on the whole it would be rather a lark. He wanted to see Barbara too. There were lots of things to talk to her about, and he had never before come home for his holidays without finding her there to meet him. He had missed her during the first few days, more than he would have thought possible.