And she went.
"I have never been here before," said Theodora, as they turned into the
Forest of Marly. "And you have been wise in your choice so far. I love
trees."
"You see how I study and care for the things which belong to me," said
Hector. It gave him ridiculous pleasure to announce that sentence
again--ridiculous, unwarrantable pleasure.
Theodora turned her head away a little. She would like to have continued
the subject, but she did not dare.
Presently they came to a side allée, and after going up it about a
mile the automobile stopped, and they got out and walked down a green
glade to the right.
Oh, and I wonder if any of you who read know the Forest of Marly, and
this one green glade that leads down to the centre of a star where five
avenues meet? It is all soft grass and splendid trees, and may have been
a rendezvous de chasse in the good old days, when life--for the
great--was fair in France.
It is very lonely now, and if you want to spend some hours in peace you
can almost count upon solitude there.
"Now, is not this beautiful?" he asked her, as they neared the centre,
"and soon you will see why I carry this rug over my arm. I am going to
take you right to the middle of the star until you see five paths for
you to choose from, all green and full of glancing sunlight, and when
you have selected one we will penetrate down it and sit under a tree. Is
it good--my idea?"
"Very good," said Theodora. Then she was silent until they reached the
rond-point.
There was that wonderful sense of aloofness and silence--hardly even the
noise of a bird. Only the green, green trees, and here and there a
shaft of sunlight turning them into the shade of a lizard's back.
An ideal spot for--poets and dreamers--and lovers--Theodora thought.
"Now we are here! Look this way and that! Five paths for us to choose
from!"
Then something made Theodora say, "Oh, let us stay in the centre, in
this one round place, where we can see them all and their
possibilities."
"And do you think uncertain possibilities are more agreeable perhaps
than certain ends?" he asked.
"I never speculate," said Theodora.
"As you will, then," he said, while he looked into her eyes, and he
placed the rug up against a giant tree between two avenues, so that
their view really only extended down three others now.