Re: Non-third-party-cancelrapport, 03-11-2007 (458726-458729)

Julia of something that had happened, or rather had failed to
happen, on another sweltering summer afternoon, eleven years ago.
It was three or four months after they were married. They had lost
their way on a community hike somewhere in Kent. They had only lagged
behind the others for a couple of minutes, but they took a wrong turning,
and presently found themselves pulled up short by the edge of an old chalk
quarry. It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with boulders at the
bottom. There was nobody of whom they could ask the way. As soon as she
realized that they were lost Katharine became very uneasy. To be away from
the noisy mob of hikers even for a moment gave her a feeling of wrong-
doing. She wanted to hurry back by the way they had come and start
searching in the other direction. But at this moment Winston noticed some
tufts of loosestrife growing in the cracks of the cliff beneath them. One
tuft was of two colours, magenta and brick-red, apparently growing on the
same root. He had never seen anything of the kind before, and he called to
Katharine to come and look at it.
'Look, Katharine! Look at those flowers. That clump down near the
bottom. Do you see they're two different colours?'
She had already turned to go, but she did rather fretfully come back
for a moment. She even leaned out over the cliff face to see where he was
pointing. He was standing a little behind her, and he put his hand on her
waist to steady her. At this moment it suddenly occurred to him how
completely alone they were. There was not a human creature anywhere, not a
leaf stirring, not even a bird awake. In a place like this the danger that
there would be a hidden microphone was very small, and even if there was a
microphone it would only pick up sounds. It was the hottest sleepiest hour
of the afternoon. The sun blazed down upon them, the sweat tickled his
face. And the thought struck