"Not the first time the director of a bank has appropriated part of the funds," said the Doctor. "Didn't you find that an orange would buy more cherries or apples at one time than at another?"
ONE:It was a crisp morning, with touches of frost lingering in shadowed places where the warmth of the primrose-coloured winter sunshine had not reached them, and Norah preferred walking to taking the bus that would have set her down at the corner where Alfred Street became Alfred Road. She was keenly sensitive to the suggestion of brisk sunshine or the depression of heavy weather, but the kindly vigour of this winter morning did{192} not wholly account for the exhilaration and glee of her blood. There was more than that in it: the drench of a December gale would hardly have affected her to-day. As she went, she let herself examine for the first time the conditions that for the last six weeks had caused her every morning to awake with the sense of pleasure and eager anticipation of the ensuing day. Hitherto she had diverted her mind from causes, and been contented with effects. Her office-work (that work which had begun so distastefully) pleased and interested her, her catalogue work enthralled her, and now she turned round the corner, so to speak, of herself, and asked herself why this sunshine was spread over all she did.The ladies smiled; I glowered. "Take those horses by their heads and turn them to me!"
THREE:When the sketch was finished, they returned to the hotel. The tide was now out, and so the Doctor settled their account and they started for Yokohama, following the most direct route, and making no halts for sight-seeing. They arrived late in the evening, well pleased with their excursion to Dai-Boots and Enoshima, and determined to give their[Pg 182] friends at home a full and faithful account of what they had seen and learned.MR. BASSETT HAS DECIDED. MR. BASSETT HAS DECIDED.
