-I must rise to the occasion. We'll have a
chapter as we rest.'

Insensibly, Nancy had followed the direction he chose. His words took
for granted that she was going into the country with him.

'My friends are on the pier,' she said, abruptly stopping.

'Where doubtless they will enjoy themselves. Let me carry your book,
please. Helmholtz is rather heavy.'

'Thanks, I can carry it very well. I shall turn this way.'

'No, no. My way this afternoon.'

Nancy stood still, looking up the street that led towards the sea.
She was still bright-coloured; her lips had a pathetic expression, a
child-like pouting.

'There was an understanding,' said Tarrant, with playful firmness.

'Not for to-day.'

'No. For the day when you disappointed me. The day after, I didn't think
it worth while to come here; yesterday I came, but felt no surprise that
I didn't meet you. To-day I had a sort of hope. This way.'

She followed, and they walked for several minutes in silence.

'Will you let me look at Helmholtz?' said the young man at length. 'Most
excellent book, of course. "Physiological Causes of Harmony in Music,"
"Interaction of Natural Forces," "Conservation of Force."--You enjoy
this kind of thing?'

'One must know something about it.'

'I suppose so. I used to grind at science because everybody talked
science. In reality I loathed it, and now I read only what I like.
Life's too short for intellectual make-believe. It is too short for
anything but enjoyment. Tell me what you read for pure pleasure.
Poetry?'

They had left the streets, and were pursuing a road bordered with
gardens, gardens of glowing colour, sheltered amid great laurels,
shadowed by stately trees; the air was laden with warm scents of flower
and leaf. On an instinct of resistance, Nancy pretended that the
exact sciences were her favourite study. She said it in the tone
of superiority which habit had made natural to her in speaking of
intellectual things. And Tarrant appeared to accept her declaration
without scepticism; but, a moment after, he turned the talk upon novels.

Thus, for half an hour and more, they strolled on by upward ways, until
Teignmouth lay beneath them, and the stillness of meadows all about.
Presently Tarrant led from the beaten road into a lane all but overgrown
with grass. He began to gather flowers, and offered them to Nancy.
Personal conversation seemed at an end; they were enjoying the brilliant
sky and the peaceful loveliness