He laid down his knife and fork and laughed.
“You paddled!” he asked. “Nonsense, nonsense!”
She had not meant to tell him, for her reasonable mind had informed her all the time that this was a secret expression of the rejuvenation she was conscious of. But it had slipped out, a thoughtless assertion of the youthfulness she felt.
“I did indeed,” she said, “and I found it very bracing and invigorating.”
Then for a moment a certain bitterness welled up within her, born from disappointment at his imperceptiveness.
“You see I never suffer from gout or rheumatism like you, Lyndhurst,” she said. “I hope you have been quite free from them since I have been away.”
But his amusement, though it had produced this spirit of rancour in her, had not been in the least unkindly. It was legitimate to
