light had faded from the day. She begged Arthur to drive
her home as quickly as he could.

Arthur was puzzled by her strangeness. He could not understand why she
did not speak to him. They drove on in silence through the dusk. So
they came to the point at which the coast road turns inward towards
Lapton Huish, a lonely spot where the cliffs break away into low hills,
and the highroad runs between a ridge of shingle on one side and on the
other two reedy meres. The night was windless, and they heard no sound
but a faint shivering of reed-beds, and the plash and withdrawal of
languid waves lapping the miles of fine shingle with a faint hiss like
that of grain falling on to a mound.

On the bridge that spanned the channel connecting the two meres
Gabrielle asked him to stop. He did so, wondering, and she climbed out
of the trap, and leaned upon the coping, looking out over the water.
He couldn't think what to make of her. He did not know how dear is
mystery to the heart of a woman. He stood by, awkwardly looking at
her. At last she said slowly, "I hate the sea.... I hate it. But I
love lake-water," which didn't lead much further. But he knew that she
was for some reason unhappy, and found this difficult to bear. He came
near to her, leaning over the bridge at her side.

"I wish you'd tell me what's the matter," he said. "It's all very well
your helping me, but it's a bit one-sided if I can't do anything for
you."

She gazed at his shadowy face in the darkness, and then gently put her
hand on his. She felt a kind of shudder go through him as he clasped
it.

XV

After that night it is difficult to believe that Gabrielle any longer
deceived herself, though I do not suppose that Arthur realised the true
meaning of their relation. The significant feature in it is that he
was gradually and almost imperceptibly becoming a normal human being.
Gabrielle had begun by developing in him a substitute for a conscience;
for since he had begun to consider everything that he said or did in
the light of its probable effect upon his idol, it had become a habit
with him to follow a definite code of conduct, and the saying that
habit is second nature finds an example in his extraordinary case.

It is fascinating, but I believe profitless, to speculate on the subtle
hereditary influences that underlay their attraction for each other.
One can imagine that their state presented an example of the way in
which people