She had a habit of going to St. James's Park in the late afternoon and
sitting there by the water. Was it by chance that he passed one day
on his way home from chambers, and that, after this, they sat there
together constantly? Why make her father uneasy--when there was nothing
to be uneasy about--by letting him come too often to Bury Street? It
was so pleasant, too, out there, talking calmly of many things, while in
front of them the small ragged children fished and put the fishes into
clear glass bottles, to eat, or watch on rainy days, as is the custom of
man with the minor works of God.
So, in nature, when the seasons are about to change, the days pass,
tranquil, waiting for the wind that brings in the new. And was it
not natural to sit under the trees, by the flowers and the water, the
pigeons and the ducks, that wonderful July? For all was peaceful in
Gyp's mind, except, now and then, when a sort of remorse possessed her,
a sort of terror, and a sort of troubling sweetness.
V
Summerhay did not wear his heart on his sleeve, and when, on the
closing-day of term, he left his chambers to walk to that last meeting,
his face was much as usual under his grey top hat. But, in truth, he had
come to a pretty pass. He had his own code of what was befitting to a
gentleman. It was perhaps a trifle "old Georgian," but it included doing
nothing to distress a woman.
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