"What a beastly shame," he said, "I mean for both of you." He included Martin because he liked him now, reading between the lines.

He must be an awfully decent chap who had had a pretty bad time.
"Yes," said Joan, "it is, for both of us." And she was grateful to him for such complete understanding,--grateful for Martin, too.

They might have been brothers, these boys.

"But for you, Easthampton would have been impossible," she added.

"I don't mean the house or the place or the sea, which is glorious.