Page 984 - of-human-bondage-

his limbs freely, and he covered the water with long, firm
strokes. But Sally, with a towel round her, went down to the
water’s edge.
‘You’re to come out this minute, Philip,’ she called, as
though he were a small boy under her charge.
And when, smiling with amusement at her authoritative
way, he came towards her, she upbraided him.
‘It is naughty of you to stay in so long. Your lips are quite
blue, and just look at your teeth, they’re chattering.’
‘All right. I’ll come out.’
She had never talked to him in that manner before. It
was as though what had happened gave her a sort of right
over him, and she looked upon him as a child to be cared
for. In a few minutes they were dressed, and they started to
walk back. Sally noticed his hands.
‘Just look, they’re quite blue.’
‘Oh, that’s all right. It’s only the circulation. I shall get the
blood back in a minute.’
‘Give them to me.’
She took his hands in hers and rubbed them, first one
and then the other, till the colour returned. Philip, touched
and puzzled, watched her. He could not say anything to her
on account of the children, and he did not meet her eyes;
but he was sure they did not avoid his purposely, it just hap-
pened that they did not meet. And during the day there was
nothing in her behaviour to suggest a consciousness in her
that anything had passed between them. Perhaps she was
a little more talkative than usual. When they were all sit-
ting again in the hop-field she told her mother how naughty