o them poured out
his song of hope and courage. From quite a long way off they could still
hear his clear voice singing, telling to the young and brave his gallant
message. It seemed too beautiful a day for politics. After all,
politics--one has them always with one; but the spring passes.

He saw her on to a bus at Kingston, and himself went back by train. They
agreed they would not mention it to Mrs. Phillips. Not that she would
have minded. The danger was that she would want to come, too; honestly
thinking thereby to complete their happiness. It seemed to be tacitly
understood there would be other such excursions.

The summer was propitious. Phillips knew his London well, and how to get
away from it. There were winding lanes in Hertfordshire, Surrey hills
and commons, deep, cool, bird-haunted woods in Buckingham. Each week
there was something to look forward to, something to plan for and
manoeuvre. The sense of adventure, a spice of danger, added zest. She
still knocked frequently, as before, at the door of the
hideously-furnished little house in North Street; but Mrs. Phillips no
longer oppressed her as some old man of the sea she could never hope to
shake off from her shoulders. The flabby, foolish face, robbed of its
terrors, became merely pitiful. She found herself able to be quite
gentle and patient with Mrs. Phillips. Even the sloppy kisses she came
to bear without a shudder down her spine.

"I know you are only doing it because you sympathize with his aims and
want him to win," acknowledged the good lady. "But I can't help feeling
grateful to you. I don't feel how useless I am while I've got you to run
to."

They still discussed their various plans for the amelioration and
improvement of humanity; but there seemed less need for haste than they
had thought. The world, Joan discovered, was not so sad a place as she
had judged it. There were chubby, rogue-eyed children; whistling lads
and smiling maidens; kindly men with ruddy faces; happy mothers crooning
over gurgling babies. There was no call to be fretful and vehement. They
would work together in patience and in confidence. God's sun was
everywhere. It needed only that dark places should be opened up and it
would enter.

Sometimes, seated on a lichened log, or on the short grass of some
sloping hillside, looking down upon some quiet valley, they would find
they had been holding hands while talking. It was but as two happy,
though