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"What have you been doing?" she asked, "since I
saw you last."
She never said he had grown, but she told him he looked tall; and
though the tea was a marvellous display it was never an obtrusive
tea, it wasn't poked at a fellow; a various plenty flowed well
within reach of one's arm, like an agreeable accompaniment to their
conversation.
"What have you done? All sorts of brave things? Do you swim now?
I can swim. Oh! I can swim half a mile. Some day we will swim
races together. Why not? And you ride? . . .
"The horse bolted--and you stuck on? Did you squeak? I stick on,
but I HAVE to squeak. But you--of course, No! you mustn't. I'm
just a little woman. And I ride big horses. . . ."
And for the end she had invented a characteristic little ceremony.
She would stand up in front of him and put her hands on his
shoulders and look into his face.
"Clean eyes?" she would say. "--still?"
Then she would take his ears in her little firm hands and kiss very
methodically his eyes and his forehead and his cheeks and at last
his lips.


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