"Yes, I've changed in a way, of course," she admitted presently, "I feel
grown up now, and I never felt so before. Life was all play to me until
grandfather died."
"And it isn't now?"
"Not entirely--I'm still growing."
Her hand rested on the bars beside which she was standing, and the
fragrant festoons of wild grape blooming beside the post, brushed softly
against her bosom. There was a quietness, a suggestion of restraint in
her attitude which he had never seen in the old Molly.
"The day you went away you told me you wanted to live," he said.
"I remember. I couldn't have done differently. I had to find out things
for myself. Of course, life is all just the same everywhere, but then
I didn't know it. I used to think that one had only to travel a certain
distance and one would pass the boundary of the commonplace and come
into the country of adventure. It was silly, of course, but you see
I didn't know any better. It was the fret of youth, I suppose, though
people never seem to think that women ever feel it--or, perhaps, as Mrs.
Bottom used to say, it was only the Gay blood working off."
"I don't like to hear you talk of the Gay blood in you," he said
quickly.
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