Garratt Skinner had passed his arm through Walter Hine's and held him so, plying him with stories, bending down his keen furrowed aquiline face toward him as though he had no thought in the world but to make him his friend and bind him with affection; and Walter Hine looked up and listened and laughed, a vain, weak wisp of a creature, flattered to the skies and defenceless as a rabbit.
"Why the pretence ?" said Sylvia.

"Why the linked arms?
The pretence has grown during these last days.

What new thing is intended ?" Her eyes were on the garden, and as she looked it seemed that her terror grew.

"My father went away a week ago.

Since he has returned the pretence has increased.