CECIL. I see. [_Turning towards the tree._] Well, sit down now you are here. Isn't it a glorious day?
EVELYN [_hesitating_]. I don't believe I ought to sit down.
CECIL [_turns to her_]. Why not? There's no particular virtue about standing, is there? I hate standing. So let's sit down and be comfortable.
[_She sits, so does he. She sits on bank under tree, left of it. He sits below bank to right of tree._]
EVELYN. But _ought_ I to be sitting here with you? That's what I mean. It's--not as if I really _knew_ you, is it?
CECIL. Not _know_ me? [_The chatter of birds dies away._]
EVELYN. Not properly--we've never even been introduced. We just met quite by chance here in the wood.
CECIL. Yes. [_Ecstatically._] What a glorious chance!
EVELYN. Still, I'm sure mother wouldn't approve.
CECIL. And _you_ say Mrs. Rivers isn't stupid!
EVELYN [_laughing_]. I expect most people would agree with her. Most people would say you oughtn't to have spoken to a girl you didn't know like that.
CECIL. Oh, come, I only asked my way back to the inn.
EVELYN. There was no harm in asking your way, of course. But then we began talking of other things. And then we sat down under this tree. And we've sat under this tree every afternoon since. And that was a week ago.
CECIL. Well, it's such an awfully jolly tree.
EVELYN. I don't know _what_ mother would say if she heard of it!
EVELYN [_ruefully_]. I'm afraid it would.
CECIL. How fortunate you don't know it then.
EVELYN [_pondering_]. Still, if I really _oughtn't_ to be here.... Do _you_ think I oughtn't to be here?
CECIL. I don't think I should go into that if I were you. Sensible people think of what they want to do, not of what they _ought_ to do, otherwise they get confused. And then of course they do the wrong thing.
EVELYN. But if I do what I oughtn't, I generally find I'm sorry for it afterwards.
CECIL. Not half sorry as you would have been if you hadn't done it. In this world the things one regrets are the things one hasn't done. For instance, if I hadn't spoken to you a week ago here in the wood I should have regretted it all my life.
[_He lays his hand on hers for a moment, she lets it rest there. Cuckoo calls loudly once or twice--she draws her hand away._]