“Dale!”

He put her hands to his lips, bending his head down over them, holding them against his cheek, kissing them over and over again.

“Dale!”

“It’s a damnable thing! I keep thinking suppose it had been you.”

“How could it have been me?” said Lisle in a quiet, empty voice.

He laid her hands back in her lap and slipped an arm about her shoulders.

“That’s the sort of trick one’s imagination plays. You haven’t any, have you? It just got me on the raw – I don’t know why. I wish you hadn’t given her that coat. I don’t like other people wearing your things.”

Lisle almost laughed.

“Why, what can I do with them?”

“Burn them.”

“Dale – how wasteful! I couldn’t!”

“Never mind about that. Are you going to help me?”

A faint uneasiness stirred. She said,

“Of course. What do you want me to do?”

She began to wish that he would take his arm away, but it held her.

“It’s this way. You know Alicia drove me up to the aerodrome?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we went for a drive first. It was too early for night flying, and we went up on to the headland for a bit. We used to picnic up there when we were children. Lal wanted to watch the sunset, so we went. And we didn’t see Cissie, but we saw Pell rushing away in the deuce of a hurry. The worst of it is Lal and I will have to swear to that at the inquest, and if they run Pell in for murder, we shall have to swear to it at the trial. We didn’t get to the aerodrome till eleven, and every minute of the time we were together is going to be put under a microscope. It’s the most damnable thing that could have happened – you can imagine what people will say. And the only way to stop their mouths lies with you. You’ve got to go about with Alicia, and you’ve got to go about with me. We’ve got to give the best imitation of a honeymoon couple. If everyone sees the sort of terms we’re on, and that you and Lal are friends, well, there won’t be any more to say.”

Lisle sat back into the corner of the seat. His arm fell from her shoulders and lay along the oak rail. She said without looking at him,

“Is Alicia my friend?”

Dale sat back too. His hand came down on the seat with a thud.

“What do you mean by that? She’s my cousin – and your cousin.”

Lisle said what she had not meant to say.

“Are you in love with her?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“No. I saw you yesterday – in the study-”

The dark colour rushed into his face. He looked for the moment so taken aback and helpless that her heart smote her. Then anger swept in.

“What are you talking about?”

She shrank back as far as she could go.

“Are you in love with her?”

“I don’t know what you think you saw.”

She said quite quietly and gently, “I saw you kissing each other. She had her arms round your neck. It was after Miss Cole had gone. I was looking for you to tell you about it. She wanted – no, that doesn’t matter-”

“None of it matters,” said Dale, in a different voice. He caught her hands again. “Darling, I’m awfully sorry – I really am. I wouldn’t have had. you hurt for the world. Lal and I haven’t the slightest idea of being in love – I give you my word we haven’t. We’re just awfully fond of each other, and – well, she’s impulsive. She’d been on at me to take her up next time I flew, and I’d been saying I wouldn’t, and all at once I gave in. She was so pleased she just chucked herself into my arms. Of course you had to come along at that identical moment! I really am sorry, darling. Do be friends.” He smiled at her with his eyes, drawing her towards him.

A thin, cold whisper went through her mind like a wandering wind. “It isn’t true – it wasn’t that sort of kiss – it isn’t true-” Why shouldn’t it be true? Why couldn’t she believe what he said, and believe the smile in his eyes and be happy again? A longing like a sharp hunger came over her to cry away all her fear and doubt and unhappiness in his arms. She mastered it.

Not that way, not because she was so achingly tired and afraid. What she had borne she could not go on bearing. If there was more to come she must bear that too, but she would meet it with her eyes open – not drugged and anaesthetised by a false happiness. A line came up out of memory and rang in her ears: “I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore and crept past.” She lifted her head and said gently,

“I’ll do anything I can. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, nothing very difficult, darling, though I’m afraid it may be a bit distressing. I thought we might go down and see Miss Cole together. She’d think a lot of it if we did.”

He released her hands, and she got up almost with relief. She was physically exhausted and mentally strained. The scene with Miss Cole would be a painful thing to go through, but anything was better than to go on sitting here on this lovely evening – the sea, and sky, and green things praising God, and Dale looking at her as if he loved her with all his heart. Six months ago it was paradise. Now she shrank from it as the last, worst burden she could be asked to bear.

THEY walked down into the village. It took quite a long time to reach the post office, because Dale stopped and spoke to everyone they met. He stood with his hand on Lisle’s shoulder or his arm through hers and told young Mrs. Crisp who was old Obadiah’s grand-daughter-in-law, and his elderly daughter Aggie, and Mrs. Cooper, and Mrs. Maggs the baker’s wife, and quite a lot of other people, how shocked and distressed they both were about poor Cissie’s accident.

“I’ve always said some of those places up on Tane Head ought to be railed off. They’re not really safe in the dusk.”

Young Mrs. Crisp said, “No, that’s right,” and Aggie remembered her father saying that a boy fell over that very place getting on for seventy years ago, and there was some talk about putting up a railing then, only nothing ever got done. Mrs. Cooper was of the opinion that if they railed the whole of the headland off, it would be a good thing and no harm done.

“Never allowed to go up there, my sisters and I weren’t, not without it was broad daylight. That sort of lonely place is just putting yourself in the way of trouble – that’s what my mother used to say. There were seven of us, and we could go to church with our young men Sunday evening, or we could take a walk along the Ledlington road, but go up on the headland we couldn’t, not without it was a party.”

Dale laughed a little.

“Are you as strict as that with Mary and Mabel? You know, I’m almost afraid to tell you that Lady Steyne and I went up there to see the sunset last night. My wife had a headache and cried off.” He put his arm round Lisle’s shoulders for a moment. “You see what you’ve done, darling – Alicia and I won’t have a rag of character left. I ought to have insisted on taking a chaperone. Next time I shall take Mrs. Cooper.”

That massive lady laughed till all her chins wobbled.

“Funny, isn’t it?” she said. “When I couldn’t go up on the headland I was always wanting to – and now I can please myself, why, I wouldn’t go if you paid me. I should have to go in for some of this slimming first.” She sobered suddenly. “Well, it’s a shocking thing about Cissie, isn’t it? Her poor aunt’s taking on something cruel.”

Lisle did her part. She said “Darling” when she spoke to Dale, and forced a shy smile when he put a hand on her arm. If she looked pale and distressed, it was put down to the shock of Cissie’s death. She was very well liked in the village for her gentle, friendly ways. The present verdict was that she had a feeling heart.

Dale did nearly all the talking as they made their slow progress up the village street. He had a pleasant smile and greeting for everyone. He remembered to ask about Mrs. James Crisp’s mother who had had a stroke, and young Mrs. Crisp’s baby who was being christened on Sunday. He knew all about the eldest Cooper boy having got a rise, and he sympathised with the smallest of the Cole tribe who had fallen over its own feet and grazed a chubby knee. And to all and sundry, with Lisle smiling at his side, he proclaimed that he and Alicia Steyne had watched last night’s sunset from the top of Tane Head.