came Hermione’s voice floating distinct over the water. ‘We will go and speak to her. Do you mind?’

Gerald looked round and saw the girl standing by the water’s edge, looking at him. He pulled the boat towards her, magnetically, without thinking of her. In his world, his conscious world, she was still nobody. He knew that Hermione had a curious pleasure in treading down all the social differences, at least apparently, and he left it to her.

‘How do you do, Gudrun?’ sang Hermione, using the Christian name in the fashionable manner. ‘What are you doing?’

‘How do you do, Hermione? I WAS sketching.’

‘Were you?’ The boat drifted nearer, till the keel ground on the bank.