to play the game that Helena set him,
until the afternoon and the walk she could not deny him, should give
him his chance.

The little meal passed gaily, and after it Lucy Friend watched--not
without trepidation--Helena's various devices for staving off the crisis.
She had two important letters to write; she must go and watch Mr.
McCready sketching, as she had promised to do, or the old fellow would
never forgive her; and finally she invited the fuming M.P. to fish the
preserved water with her, accompanied by the odd-man as gilly. At this
Geoffrey's patience fairly broke. He faced her, crimson, in the inn
parlour; forgetting Lucy altogether and standing in front of the door, so
that Lucy could not escape and could only roll herself in a curtain and
look out of the window.

"I didn't come here to fish, Helena--or to sketch--but simply and solely
to talk to you! And I have come a long way. Suppose we take a walk?"

Helena eyed him. She was a little pale--but composed.

"At your service. Lead on, Sir Oracle!"

They went out together, Geoffrey taking command, and Lucy watched them
depart, across the foot-bridge, and by a green path that would lead them
before long to the ferny slopes of the mountain beyond the oak-wood. As
Helena was mounting the bridge, a servant of the inn ran out with a
telegram which had just arrived and gave it her.

Helena peered at the telegram, and then with a dancing smile thrust it
into her pocket without a word.

Her mood, as they walked on, was now, it seemed, eagerly political. She
insisted on hearing his own account of his successful speech in the
House; she wished to discuss his relations with the Labour party, which
were at the moment strained, on the question of Coal Nationalization; she
asked for his views on the Austrian Treaty, and on the prospects of the
Government. He lent himself to her caprice, so long as they were walking
one behind the other through a crowded oak-wood and along a narrow path
where she could throw her questions back over her shoulder, herself well
out of reach. But presently they came out on a glorious stretch of fell,
clothed with young green fern, and running up into a purple crag fringed
with junipers. Then he sprang to her side, and Helena knew that the hour
had come and the man. There was a flat rock on the slope below the crag,
under a group of junipers, and Helena presently found herself sitting
there, peremptorily guided by her companion, and feeling