in no way striking, as he had pictured her in his fancy. She was less tall, her hair was a paler gold, her eyes more grey than blue, her lips closed in a colder line. Yet, his reaction to this meeting was greater than he had expected. He felt a magnetic fervour coursing in his blood as his hand held hers. He wondered if this were palpable to her. If it were, he marvelled at her self-control.
Alayne's sensations were the very reverse of his. Standing before her in the flesh, his characteristics were even more intense than in her memory. He was taller, more incisive, his eyes more burning, his nose larger, more arrogantly curved at the nostrils. Inversely, his effect on her was less profound than she had feared. She was like a swimmer who, dreading the force of the current, finds himself unexpectedly able to breast it. She felt that since she had last seen him she had gained in self-confidence and maturity.
With the conflict of these undiscovered emotions surging between them, they entered the living-room.
He said: "One after another we are appearing. Only wait and you shall have Gran at your door with Boney on her shoulder."
She gave a little laugh, and then said, gravely: "But it is too bad that it is trouble that brings you."
"Yes." He looked at her shrewdly. "You know how serious Eden's condition is?"
"I have talked about it with your uncle." Her face was quite calm.
He said, his eyes devouring her: "God, it seems strange to see you!"
"And you!"
"Has the time seemed long or short to you?"
"Very long."
"Short to me. Gone like the wind."
"Ah, well, you have your horses, your dogs, your family. I am rather a lonely person."
"But you're busy." He glanced at the books on the writing-table.
She gave a little shrug, and then said: "I am afraid I think too much and take too little exercise."
