"Yes; I think, perhaps, I was. Why?"

"Sometimes I have fancied there was a moment when----"

He looked at her and then, for once, his eyes fell before hers almost
guiltily. They sat in silence for a moment. Behind them, on a bench set
in the shadow of a mighty wall, was a guardian of the Acropolis, a thin
brown man with very large ears sticking out from his head. He had been
dozing, but now stirred, shuffled his feet, and suddenly cleared his
throat. Then he sighed heavily.

"And if there was, why did you think it came, Dion?" said Rosamund
suddenly, with an almost startling swiftness of decision.

Dion reddened.

"Why don't you like to tell me?"

"Oh, well--things go through the mind without our wishing them to. You
must know that, Rosamund. They are often like absurd little intruders.
One kicks them out if one can."

"What kind of intruder did you kick out, or try to kick out, at
Burstal?"

She spoke half-laughingly, but half-challengingly.

He drew a little nearer to her.