"I lay awake a good deal last night--thinking," she answered.

"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "You ought n't to have done that!"

"It was n't wise," she admitted. "But I looked forward to the
daylight--and you--to bring me back to normal."

"Well, here we are," he hastened to assure her. "I had the sun up
ready for you several hours ago."

"You--you look so serious."

She leaned forward.

"Monte," she pleaded, "you must n't go back on me like that--now. I
suppose women can't help getting the fidgets once in a while and
thinking all sorts of things. I was tired. I 'm not used to being so
very gay. And I let myself go a little, because I thought in the
morning I 'd find you the same old Monte. I 've known you so long, and
you always _have_ been the same."

"It was a pretty exciting day for both of us," he tried to explain.

"How for you?"

"Well, to start with, one does n't get married every morning."

He saw her cheeks flush. Then she drew back.

"I think we ought to forget that as much as possible," she told him.

Here was his opportunity. The way to forget--the only way--was for him
to continue with his interrupted schedule to England, and for her to go
on alone to Etois. It was not too late for that--if he started at
once. Surely it ought to be the matter of only a few weeks to undo a
single day. Let him get the tang of the salt air, let him go to bed
every night dog-tired physically, let him get out of sight of her eyes
and lips, and that something--intangible as a perfume--that emanated
from her, and doubtless he would be laughing at himself as heartily as
he had laughed at others.

But he could not frame the words. His lips refused to move. Not only
that, but, facing her here, it seemed a grossly brutal thing to do.
She looked so gentle and fragile this morning as, picking up the
violets, she half hid her face in them.

"You mean we ought to go back to the day before yesterday?" he asked.

"In our thoughts," she answered.

"And forget that we are--"

She nodded quickly, not allowing him to finish.

"Because," she explained, "I think it must be that which is making you
serious. I don't know you that way. It is n't you. I 've seen you
all these years, wandering around wherever your fancy took
you--care-free and smiling. I've always envied you, and now--I thought
you were just going to keep right on, only taking me with you. Is n't
that what we planned?"

"Yes," he nodded.