you?"

"I shall sit down," he said; "I feel I could be inconsequent much
better if I sat down to it; that is no doubt because I am past my
first youth."

"No," she said, sitting down and putting her hat beside her; "it is
because your folly-muscles are stiff from want of use; you have played
lots of things, I expect--it is part of your necessary equipment to
be able to do so, but I doubt if you have ever played the fool
systematically. I don't believe you have ever done, and certainly
never enjoyed anything inconsequent or foolish in your life."

"If you were to ask me," he returned, "I should hardly say you
excelled in that direction either. How many inconsequent and foolish
things have you done in your life?"

"Some, and I should like to do some more. If I were alone now, do you
know what I should do? You see that deep hollow of sparkling white
sand? I should take off my clothes and lie there in the sun."

Rawson-Clew turned so that his back was that way. "Do not let me
prevent you," he said.

Julia made use of the opportunity to empty the sand out of her boots.

He looked round as she was finishing fastening them. "But why put them
on again?" he asked.

"Because I haven't retired from the world, yet," she answered, "and so
I can't do quite all I like."

"When you do retire, will this ideal summer costume also be included
in the programme? Your taste in dress grows simpler; quite ancient
British, in fact."

"The ancient Britons wore paint, and probably had fashions in it; I
don't think of imitating them. Tell me," she said, turning now to
gather the sweet-scented wild thyme, "did you ever really do anything
foolish in your life? I should like to know."

He answered her that he had, but without convincing her. Afterwards,
he came to the conclusion that, whatever might have been the case
before, he that day qualified to take rank with any one in the matter.

All the same, it was a very pleasant day, and they both enjoyed it
much; it is doubtful if any one in the town or its environs enjoyed
that holiday more than these two, who, from different reasons, had
probably never had so real a holiday before. They wandered over the
great open tract of land, meeting no one; once they came near enough
to the seaward edge to see the distant shimmer of water; once they
found themselves in the part where there has been some little attempt
at cultivation, and small patches of potatoes struggle for life, and a
little r