the park seemed part and parcel of their love of each other; it was
their refuge; it was only there that they were alone; the park was a
relief from the promiscuity of the galleries. In the park they could
talk without fear of being overheard, and they took interest in the
changes that spring was effecting in this beautiful friendly nature--
their friend and their accomplice.

'The park is greener than it was yesterday,' he said. 'Look at that
tree! How bright the green, and how strange it seems amid all the
blackness.'

'And that rose cloud and the reflection of the evening in the lake,
how tranquil.'

'And that great block of buildings, Queen Anne's Mansions, is it not
beautiful in the blue atmosphere? In London the ugliest things are
beautiful in the evening. No city has so pictorial an atmosphere.'

'Not Paris?'

'I've not seen Paris; I've never been out of England.'

'Then you're speaking of things you haven't seen.'

'Of things that I've only imagined.'

The conversation paused a moment, and then Ralph said:

'Are you still thinking of going to Paris with Elsie Laurence and
Cissy Clive?'