Even in that first moment he realised to his pain that she would have avoided him if she could.

They met, however, where the path narrowed, and he left her no chance to avoid him.

That curious impulse of conventionality which opens a conversation always with cut and dried banalities, saved them perhaps from a certain amount of embarrassment.
Without any conscious suggestion, they found themselves walking side by side.
"I have been wanting to see you very much indeed," he said.

"I even went so far as to wonder whether I dared call." "Why should you ?" she asked.

"Our acquaintance began and ended in tragedy.