There would still have been time to retrieve my indecision. The Boulevard, approached from that end of the town, is not nearly so frequented as the Rue Levavasseur and the quarter near the Casino. It was, in fact, particularly quiet. But every step we took under the shady limes, past the white-façaded houses and gardens vermilion with geraniums and bluer than the sky with lobelia, brought us nearer to that crowded busy world in which he held so singular a place. Or I could have left him at the corner of the Rue Jacques Cartier and made my escape by way of the Rue St Enogat. But what then? If I shook him off to-day the question would be to face again to-morrow.... Ker Yvonne, Ker Maria, Ker Loïc ... the shuttered villas slipped past us.
Then, "Derry," I said in desperation, "I'm at my wits' end about you. I haven't the faintest idea what I ought to do."
"It's jolly just being with you," he said, looking straight ahead.
"Yes. It's other people who're the difficulty."
I had the same answer as before. "As long as I sit tight, George?" he said mildly.
"Even then. You said yourself that you were both the most public and the most private man alive."
"Ah, but that was when I was slipping about all over the place.--Up here's our shop."
"But even if you're stationary you're just as much an anomaly. Nobody except you stops at one age."
"Well, it's a step in the right direction so to speak. At any rate it isn't going back."
"I wish I could tell you, old fellow," he placidly replied.
"Look here," I said abruptly. "There's just one possible way out, but I rather doubt whether you'd agree to it. I mean about what you wanted me to do last night. Would you allow me to tell the whole thing to my friends the Airds and leave the decision to them?"
Quickly, very quickly, he shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I couldn't do that."
He gave a short laugh. "She can swallow a good deal if she can swallow that!"
"She's a very observant woman. She said one thing that perhaps I ought to tell you."
"She saw you one day in South Kensington."
"She'd also had a good look at you that day at the Lyonnesse Club."
"She asked me whether Derwent Rose had a brother."
"Elle avait des conjectures? Pas possible!"
"Comme vous le dîtes, pas possible; mais s'ils poussent sur le Rosier trop de boutons----"