She did not explain that it was not hard words she feared, but the loss of her post and character, two important matters to a girl dependent on her own efforts. "Please," she said, "let us be as quick as possible." And so the return journey was made with none of the pleasant lingerings, the pauses to admire beauties that sprang unexpectedly to the gaze, the brief halts for agreeable wrangling or more intimate talk, the longer pauses when they did not talk but stood side by side and gazed out to sea in a sympathetic silence that needed no expression; these pleasures had to be foregone in the effort to overtake time. The necessity for haste irked Matheson; the girl at his side was conscious of his irritation and distressed because of it. "It is such a pity," she said, as they emerged upon the road, "to have to spoil things." He caught the note of apology in her voice, its half breathless appeal to his forbearance, and his irritation vanished in a smiling satisfaction. "By Jove!" he cried, nearly breathless too. "I never believed you'd keep the pace up. Let's put the brake on a bit. It can't make a difference of more than five minutes either way now. I can't talk, scampering along like this." When they reached the road where she was staying, instead of parting at the corner, he accompanied her, as he had on the first morning, to the side gates. Before opening the gate he drew her into the shadow of the oleanders against the fence, and, having looked cautiously up the road and down, and ascertained that no one was within sight, he slipped his hands behind her shoulders and held her for a moment and looked into her eyes. "It's good-bye this time," he said, and hung on a significant pause. She remained very quiet and still under his hands, and made no response. "You let me kiss you on the beach," he said, "but..." He bent his face towards hers. "Won't you kiss me?" he asked. For a moment she hesitated; then she lifted her face swiftly, and her lips met his, shyly and a little shamefully, in a caress which brushed his eager lips as lightly as one of the pink petals that fell, fragrant and unheeded, about them. She broke away from him; and he turned without a word and opened the gate and looked after her as she slipped through and sped up the path, a slim white figure, with the moonlight splashed upon her hair and face. The night had not been without its perfect moments for him too. CHAPTER EIGHT.