none of
them thicker than one's wrist. 'There's nothing big enough to hide a mike
in. Besides, I've been here before.'
They were only making conversation. He had managed to move closer to
her now. She stood before him very upright, with a smile on her face that
looked faintly ironical, as though she were wondering why he was so slow to
act. The bluebells had cascaded on to the ground. They seemed to have
fallen of their own accord. He took her hand.
'Would you believe,' he said, 'that till this moment I didn't know
what colour your eyes were?' They were brown, he noted, a rather light
shade of brown, with dark lashes. 'Now that you've seen what I'm really
like, can you still bear to look at me?'
'Yes, easily.'
'I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife that I can't get rid of.
I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth.'
'I couldn't care less,' said the girl.
The next moment, it was hard to say by whose act, she was in his his
arms. At the beginning he had no feeling except sheer incredulity. The
youthful body was strained against his own, the mass of dark hair was
against his face, and yes! actually she had turned her face up and he was ...