prejudice against killing things unless I want to eat them, and these
English birds are so tame that it seems to me rather like shooting
chickens.'

'I don't believe a word of it,' said Dick, as he set out. 'The fact is
that you can't hit anything smaller than a hippopotamus, and you know
that there is nothing here to suit you except Mrs. Crowley's cows.'

After luncheon Alec MacKenzie asked Lucy if she would take a stroll with
him. She was much pleased.

'Where would you like to go?' she asked.

'Let us walk by the sea.'

She took him along a road called Joy Lane, which ran from the fishing
town of Blackstable to a village called Waveney. The sea there had a
peculiar vastness, and the salt smell of the breeze was pleasant to the
senses. The flatness of the marsh seemed to increase the distances that
surrounded them, and unconsciously Alec fell into a more rapid swing. It
did not look as if he walked fast, but he covered the ground with the
steady method of a man who has been used to long journeys, and it was
good for Lucy that she was accustomed to much walking. At first they
spoke of trivial things, but presently silence fell upon them. Lucy saw
that he was immersed in thought, and she did not interrupt him. It
amused her that, after asking her to walk with him, this odd man should
take no pains to entertain her. Now and then he threw back his head with
a strange, proud motion, and looked out to sea. The gulls, with their
melancholy flight, were skimming upon the surface of the water. The
desolation of that scene--it was the same which, a few days before, had
rent poor Lucy's heart--appeared to enter his soul; but, strangely
enough, it uplifted him, filling him with exulting thoughts. He
quickened his pace, and Lucy, without a word, kept step with him. He
seemed not to notice where they walked, and presently she led him away
from the sea. They tramped along a winding road, between trim hedges and
fertile fields; and the country had all the sweet air of Kent, with its
easy grace and its comfortable beauty. They passed a caravan, with a
shaggy horse browsing at the wayside, and a family of dinglers sitting
around a fire of sticks. The sight curiously affected Lucy. The
wandering life of those people, with no ties but to the ramshackle
carriage which was their only home, their familiarity with the fields
and with strange hidden places, filled her with a wild desire for
freedom and for vast horizons. At last they ca