Behind them Perseus, with naked sword, halted in admiration, half issuing from a thicket over which stretched a distant bright line of sea and white cliff.
"You like it ?" he asked.

"But it is not quite finished yet, and Mademoiselle, if she is frank, will say that it wants something." His voice held a challenge.
"I am sure, sir, I could not guess, even if I possessed--" "A board, for example ?" "A board ?" She was completely puzzled.
He glanced at her sideways, turned to the panel, and with his forefingers traced the outline of a square upon it, against the tree.
"Restaurant pour les Aspirants," he announced.
He said it quietly, over his shoulder.

The sudden challenge, her sudden discovery that he knew, made Dorothea gasp.

She had not the smallest notion how to answer him, or even what kind of answer he expected, and stood dumb, gazing at his back.

A workman, passing, apologised for having brushed her skirt with the step-ladder he carried.