But afterwards he had thawed considerably, and had even
suggested that they should be friends. And now he was behaving as though he
had repented the suggestion and were determined to show her that he had. It
was not that he was a snob. She was absolutely certain that the fact that
the unknown heroine of the lake episode had proved to be merely the sister
of his estate agent would not have the most fractional weight with Eliot
Coventry. And as she sat swinging idly in the hammock, letting her thoughts
stray back over her few brief meetings with him, she felt utterly baffled
to interpret his behaviour.
Rather irritably she tried to dismiss the matter from her thoughts, but it
persisted in occupying the foreground of her mind, and at last, in
desperation, she picked up her discarded book and began to read. For a few
moments she succeeded in concentrating her attention. Then gradually, as
the sunlight, piercing through the branches overhead, flickered dazzlingly
on the surface of the paper, the black and white of the printed page ran
together in a blur of grey and her eyes closed drowsily. With an effort she
forced them open, although lifting her eyelids seemed like raising leaden
shutters.
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