On the morning of their first walk together he came out on to the stoep, stick in hand, ready to start, and found Esme waiting for him. He returned her greeting unsmilingly, and scrutinised her attentively with brows drawn together above the keen eyes. "You had better fetch a coat," he said. "The morning air is chilly." "It is fresh," she agreed; "but I thought perhaps walking--it may be very hot before we return." "It probably will be," he replied. "But I would prefer that you wore a coat. When it gets hot I will carry it for you." Smiling, she went inside to follow his instruction. When she came out again she wore a woollen sport's coat over her thin dress. "That's better," he said. "It is unpleasant to feel cold." He walked down the little path beside her and out on to the open road. A pale mist, like a thin white fog, shrouded the prospect and lent a bracing coldness to the air, which felt fresh and clean with the crisp purity of mountain air, washed by the overnight dews. The girl felt the benefit of the extra warmth of the coat; it was fresher than she had supposed out on the open road. A little wind that had more than a touch of sharpness in its breath blew in their faces as they walked. "I had no idea the mornings were so good," she said. "I've not been out so early before." "People miss more than they realise through lying between the sheets," he said. "In a country like this the bulk of the day's work should be accomplished before breakfast." "Is that the principle you act on?" she asked. He looked grimly ahead of him and was slow in replying. "That is the principle I should act upon if I did any work," he said at length. Esme lifted wondering eyes to his face. "It must be a great responsibility to be independent of work," she said. Hallam laughed suddenly. "Do you really think so? Most people would reverse that opinion. The weight of it does not press on me unduly." He flicked at the dust of the road with his stick and at the grass which grew beside the road, and was silent for a space. When he spoke again it was on an entirely different subject. They were swinging along down the road at a smart pace, and with every yard of ground they covered the aspect of the land changed, became more luxuriant in its growth, and altogether more rugged and assertive. The sky was flushed with a soft pink like the flush on the face of a child newly wakened from sleep. Before them as they walked the mist rolled back, a gradually thinning vapour dispersing before the warmth of the coming day, revealing with a startling unexpectedness in its reluctant retreat the wonder of contrasting colour, the beauty of the curving road with the shadows of the trees across it, and the great green silences stretching above and below; the silence of the heights, and the more secretive silence of the hidden places in the furtive darkness of the gorge.