Anxious to obliterate the memory of that emotion, he could think of nothing better than china; and moving with her slowly from cabinet to cabinet, he kept taking up bits of Dresden and Lowestoft and Chelsea, turning them round and round with his thin, veined hands, whose skin, faintly freckled, had such an aged look.

“I bought this at Jobson’s,” he would say; “cost me thirty pounds.  It’s very old.  That dog leaves his bones all over the place.  This old ‘ship-bowl’ I picked up at the sale when that precious rip, the Marquis, came to grief.  But you don’t remember.  Here’s a nice piece of Chelsea.  Now, what would you say this was?” And he was comforted, feeling that, with her taste, she was taking a real interest in these things; for, after all, nothing better composes the nerves than a doubtful piece of china.

When the crunch of the carriage wheels was heard at last, he said: 

“You must come again; you must come to lunch, then I can show you these by daylight, and my little sweet—­she’s a dear little thing.  This dog seems to have taken a fancy to you.”

For Balthasar, feeling that she was about to leave, was rubbing his side against her leg.  Going out under the porch with her, he said: 

“He’ll get you up in an hour and a quarter.  Take this for your protegees,” and he slipped a cheque for fifty pounds into her hand.  He saw her brightened eyes, and heard her murmur:  “Oh!  Uncle Jolyon!” and a real throb of pleasure went through him.  That meant one or two poor creatures helped a little, and it meant that she would come again.  He put his hand in at the window and grasped hers once more.  The carriage rolled away.  He stood looking at the moon and the shadows of the trees, and thought:  ‘A sweet night!  She......!’ II

Two days of rain, and summer set in bland and sunny.  Old Jolyon walked and talked with Holly.  At first he felt taller and full of a new vigour; then he felt restless.  Almost every afternoon they would enter the coppice, and walk as far as the log.  ‘Well, she’s not there!’ he would think, ‘of course not!’ And he would feel a little shorter, and drag his feet walking up the hill home, with his hand clapped to his left side.  Now and then the thought would move in him:  ’Did she come—­or did I dream it?’ and he would stare at space, while the dog Balthasar stared at him.  Of course she would not come again!  He opened the letters from Spain with less excitement.  They were not returning till July; he felt, oddly, that he could bear it.  Every day at dinner he screwed up his eyes and looked at where she had sat.  She was not there, so he unscrewed his eyes again.

On the seventh afternoon he thought:  ‘I must go up and get some boots.’  He ordered Beacon, and set out.  Passing from Putney towards Hyde Park he reflected:  ‘I might as well go to Chelsea and see her.’  And he called out:  “Just drive me to where you took that lady the other night.”  The coachman turned his broad red face, and his juicy lips answered:  “The lady in grey, sir?”