When she had covered herself she slept again, and dreamed that she was walking in the part of the garden which she liked best. It was a fair evening drawing towards sunset. She came by some unfamiliar steps to the sea-shore. It was not any beach that she knew. There a straight, firm track of golden sand, with the sun shining low down across the sea. Everything was very still and peaceful. The tide was out. It ought to have been a happy dream, but there was a most terrible weight upon her heart. All at once she began to hear footsteps behind her. They were the footprints on the sands of time. They were something inescapable, unalterable, irrevocable. She could not by any kind of effort turn her head, or go back, or cease from going forward.

And then she saw the rock. It rose up in her path and shut out the light. It was as high as Tane Head. Suddenly it was Tane Head, and at the foot of the cliff Cissie Cole lay broken, with Lisle’s coat covering her. The footsteps came on and ceased because they were come to the end. Lisle looked down at the coat. She bent and pulled a fold away from the hidden face. And it wasn’t Cissie who was lying there dead – it was Lisle Jerningham… Someone put out a hand and touched her-

She woke. The room was dark. She could not tell right hand from left, or up from down. Somewhere in the house there was movement. A door closed. Her sense of direction came back. She got out of bed and went to the right-hand window. A sea mist had come up and blotted out the moon. She could see nothing but its baffling curtain. She stood there a long time looking out.

Chapter 26

THE mist was still there when she came down next morning. Dale had breakfasted and gone. Alicia was smoking and sipping orange juice. She waved her cigarette in a greeting which left a queer scrawl hanging in the air between them and said in her sweetest voice,

“Dale says he’s broken it to you that we are to be bosom friends. He’s horribly afraid of a breath of scandal, isn’t he? I don’t mind about it myself, but men are such prudes, and, as I told the handsome policeman, Dale is too feudal. He actually minds what all the Coles, and Crisps, and Coopers say in the village. Do you?”

Lisle was pouring herself out a cup of coffee. She said without looking round,

“I don’t know.”

“And just what do you mean by that, my dear?”

Lisle set the coffee-pot down.

“I shouldn’t like the village to say things about Dale, or to think them either. If they were true it would hurt us all, and if they weren’t it would be silly to let people go on thinking they were.” She turned round as she spoke with her cup in her hand and went to the table.

Alicia laughed.

“How pure that sounds! Well, when do we give an exhibition performance of friendship? What about walking down into the village presently with our arms entwined? We can invent something to do when we get there.”

As she spoke, Rafe wandered in, and she broke off to say,

“Hullo! Why aren’t you earning your living?”

He went over to the side table and began to lift covers.

“Scrambled eggs – I wonder. Bacon – I don’t think. What did you say, darling?”

“I said, ‘Why are you not working?’ ”

He waved his right hand in her direction.

“I still have a strained thumb, and if you’ve any idea of pointing out that it is all imagination, I come back at you with ‘If I imagine my thumb is strained, I shall also imagine that I can’t draw with it.’ Vantage to me!”

Alicia blew out a delicate cloud of smoke.

“Do you draw with your thumb?”

“Try drawing without it, darling. Game and set! A kipper – I thought I smelt a kipper. Lisle, what are you having – coffee? That’s your American blood.” He brought his kipper to the table and sat down beside her. “Good Queen Bess breakfasted off a baron of beef and several bumpers of beer. It’s a degenerate age. You are continental – pick your continent. Alicia is definitely decadent – there’s something sinister about nicotine and orange juice. I am supporting the herring industry. What is everyone going to do today?”

Alicia stubbed out her cigarette on the edge of his plate.

“Try nicotine and kipper – that’s decadent if you like! Lisle and I are walking down into the village all wreathed in friendship.”

Lisle looked up.

“I’m afraid I can’t this morning.”

“Oh?” Alicia stared. “And why not?”

“I’ve got to go into Ledlington.”

Alicia laughed.

“Dale’s taken the car,” she said.

“Oh-” It was no more than an escaping breath. A feeling of panic invaded her. Suppose Alicia were to offer to drive her into Ledlington. She would have to go – she must telephone to Miss Silver. Suppose Alicia didn’t offer. William Crisp had a car which he hired out – she might take that. But then everyone in the village would wonder why she had to hire.

“I think I’m bored with Ledlington,” said Alicia. “We can show ourselves there another day. We had better start with the village.”

“Obliging creature, aren’t you?” said Rafe. “Everyone seems to forget that I possess a car. Lisle and I will go to Ledlington, and you can walk into the village all by yourself. What time do you want to start, honey-sweet?” Alicia’s colour flared.

“That’s a perfectly ridiculous name! If I were Dale-”

Rafe burst out laughing.

“You’d eat a proper breakfast. I don’t mind betting he went right through everything.” He turned to Lisle. “Well, when do we start?”

She looked at him gratefully.

“Could it be rather soon?”

“It could.”

“Are you going to buy a new car?” said Alicia in a taunting voice.

“I don’t know – I might. It’s difficult not having one-”

“Oh, Rafe’s at your disposal – whilst he’s got a sprained thumb.”

Rafe got up to put away his plate. He came back reciting, “ ‘Let me malinger and I’ll dare, e’en that to drive for thee -’ To Anthea who may command him in anything!”

Alicia broke into sudden laughter.

“Are you trying to make Lisle believe you’re fond of her? What a hope!”

Rafe smiled.

“She’s a credulous creature – she might be taken in. You had better warn her – I can see you are going to anyhow.” He turned a laughing look on Lisle. “I’m not a prophet in my own country. Alicia is just going to tell you that I’ve never been fond of anyone in my life. I’m a philanderer, a specialist in flirtation, an unreliable poacher on other people’s preserves. I rob henroosts and don’t even want to eat the eggs. I throw them away because I like breaking things. It is well known that I have no heart. In fact, You Have Been Warned.”

Lisle made herself smile too. Beneath the chaff there ran a swift, secret current. She didn’t know what it was, but it made her afraid.

She said as lightly as she could, “Would that be true?” and Alicia laughed again.

“Of course it’s true. He’s a cold fish. No, fish isn’t the right creature – I believe they are quite affectionate.”

“Try serpent,” said Rafe in an interested voice. “I rather fancy that. ‘He sleeked his soul in a serpent’s skin, and buttoned it up and buttoned it in.’ Strictly original and impromptu effort by Rafe Jerningham. And what she really means, honey-sweet, is, don’t trust me an inch, because I might take an ell, and on no account let me drive you into Ledlington, because it interferes with her own plans for this morning.”

“I’ll go and get ready,” said Lisle.

The mist was drawing up as they came on to the Ledlington road. Warmth came through it, and a veiled sunlight prophesying heat. She said suddenly,

“Why does Alicia say that sort of thing?”

Rafe flashed her a quick, enigmatic look.

“Don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t think I do. She sounded angry.”

“Oh, yes, she was angry.”

“Why?”

His shoulder lifted.