“Yes, presently.” He took his cup from her, sipped from it and put it down on the red table beside him.
“What is it, Val?” She felt annoyed that she had let him see something was the matter with her.
“Bob’s going, and Johnson. They’re off in two weeks.”
Dane took another sip of tea and lit a cigarette. Then he looked out into the garden before turning his face to her.
“We needn’t be sorry for them. I guess they want to go.”
“Oh, I’m not sorry for them, Dane. I’m envying them. I never wanted to be a man before, but I do now.” She spoke with a little impatience.
He gave her a quick look. “What do you want to do, Val? Aren’t you going on with your novel?”
“Well, I’ve not been getting on very well with it lately.”
“Do you want to stop it and get into something?”
This was the first time he had put the question to her. He had been thinking about asking it for a week or two, for it had seemed to him that something was working in her. But he had seen no sign that she wished to get away.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she answered evasively, wondering why she could not tell him frankly what she did want.
“Do you want to go back to the News now that Bob is going away?”
“Oh, heavens no! Not there, no.”
“Well, what is it, dear? Do you want to go to Auckland, to get into something bigger there?”
“Would you come too?”
He looked at her and away again. He knew it was the first serious challenge that had passed between them.
“I don’t know about going for any length of time,” he said quietly. “I can work better here. But wouldn’t
