"I was coming in this evening," he said, in answer to her eyes.

"May I speak to you a moment before you start with Miss Waldron?" she
asked, and together they strolled into Estelle's rose garden where still
a poor blossom or two crowned naked sprays.

"I don't understand," began the girl. "Surely--surely after yesterday?"

"I'd promised to go for this walk with her."

"What then? Wasn't there all the morning? My mother and I didn't go to
church--expecting you every minute."

"You must keep your nerve, Sabina--both of us must. You mustn't be
hysterical about it."

She perceived how mightily his mood had changed since their leave-taking
of the day before.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "I suppose your people have not taken
this well."

"They don't know yet--nobody does."

"You didn't tell them?"

"Things prevented it. We must choose the right moment to spring this.
It's bound to knock them over for a minute. I'm thinking it all out.
Probably you don't quite realise, Sabina, what this means from their
point of view. The first thing is to get my aunt on my side; Daniel's
hopeless, of course."

She stared at him.

"What in God's name has come over you? You talk as though you hadn't a
drop of blood in your veins. Were you deaf yesterday? Didn't you hear me
tell you I was with child by you? 'Their point of view'! What about my
point of view?"

"Don't get excited, my dear girl. Do give me credit for some sense. This
is a very ticklish business, and the whole of our future--yours, of
course, quite as much as mine--will depend on what I do during the next
few days. Do try to realise that. If I make a mistake now, we may repent
it for fifty years."

"What d'you call making a mistake? What choice of action have you got if
you're a gentleman? It kills me--kills me to hear you talking about
making a mistake; and your hard voice means that you think you've made
one. What have I done but love you with all my heart and soul? What have
I ever done to make you put other people's points of view before mine?"

"I'm not--I'm not, Sabina."

"You are. You used to understand me so well and know what was in my mind
before I spoke, and now--now before this--the greatest thing in the
world for me--you--"

"Talk quietly, for goodness' sake. You don't want all Bridetown to hear
us."

"You can say that? And you go out walking with a child and--"

"Look here, Sabina, you must pull yourself together, or else you stand a
ver