And then--but the rest of the night was given to tender and delicious
things, and when he went up to bed a scarlet dawn was streaming from the
east.




III


For days Lucian lay in a swoon of pleasure, smiling when he was
addressed, sauntering happily in the sunlight, hugging recollection warm
to his heart. Annie had told him that she was going on a visit to her
married sister, and said, with a caress, that he must be patient. He
protested against her absence, but she fondled him, whispering her charms
in his ear till he gave in and then they said good-bye, Lucian adoring on
his knees. The parting was as strange as the meeting, and that night when
he laid his work aside, and let himself sink deep into the joys of
memory, all the encounter seemed as wonderful and impossible as magic.

"And you really don't mean to do anything about those rascals?" said his
father.

"Rascals? Which rascals? Oh, you mean Beit. I had forgotten all about it.
No; I don't think I shall trouble. They're not worth powder and shot."

And he returned to his dream, pacing slowly from the medlar to the quince
and back again. It seemed trivial to be interrupted by such questions; he
had not even time to think of the book he had recommenced so eagerly,