at she was in every respect superior to her position and
worthy of any man's admiration.

He did not analyse his feelings or look ahead very far. He did not
bother to ask himself what he wanted. He was only concerned to make
Sabina 'a chum,' as he said, to himself. He knew this to be nonsense,
even while he said it, but in the excitement of the quest, chose to
ignore rational lines of thought.

They met by the little bridge over Bride, then walked southerly up a
hill to a hamlet, and so on to the heights. Beneath the sponge-coloured
cliffs eastward swept the grand scythe of Chesil Bank; but an east wind
had brought its garment of grey-blue haze and the extremity of the Bank,
with Portland Bill beyond, was hidden. The cliffs gave presently and
green slopes sank to the beaches. They reached a place where, separated
from the sea by great pebble-ridges, there lay a little mere. Two swans
swam together upon it, and round about the grey stone banks were washed
with silver pink, where the thrift prospered.

Sabina had not talked much, though she proved a good listener; but
Raymond spoke fitfully, too, at first. He was new to this sort of thing
and told her so.

"I don't believe I've ever been for a walk with a girl in my life
before," he said.

"I can't walk fast enough for you, I'm afraid."

"Oh yes, you can; you're a very good walker."

At last he began to tell her about himself, in the usual fashion of the
male, who knows by instinct that subject is most interesting to both. He
dwelt on his sporting triumphs of the past, and explained his trials and
tribulations in the present. He represented that he was mewed up like an
eagle. He described how the tragic call to work for a living had sounded
in his ear when he anticipated no such painful experience. Before this
narrative Sabina affected a deeper sympathy than she felt, yet honestly
perceived that to such a man, his present life of regular hours must be
dreary and desolate.

"It's terrible dull for you, I'm sure," she said.

"It was," he confessed, "but I'm getting broken in, or perhaps it's
because you're so jolly friendly. You're the only person I know in the
whole world who has got the mind and imagination to see what a frightful
jar it was for an open-air man like me to be dropped into this. People
think it is the most unnatural thing on earth that I should suddenly
begin to work. But it's just as unnatural really as if my brother
suddenly began to play. Even