'Hello, Hermione, are you back again? How do you feel?'
'Oh, better. And how are you--you don't look well--'
'Oh!--I believe Gudrun and Winnie Crich are coming in to tea. At least
they said they were. We shall be a tea-party. What train did you come
by, Ursula?'
It was rather annoying to see him trying to placate both women at once.
Both women watched him, Hermione with deep resentment and pity for him,
Ursula very impatient. He was nervous and apparently in quite good
spirits, chattering the conventional commonplaces. Ursula was amazed
and indignant at the way he made small-talk; he was adept as any FAT in
Christendom. She became quite stiff, she would not answer. It all
seemed to her so false and so belittling. And still Gudrun did not
appear.
'I think I shall go to Florence for the winter,' said Hermione at
length.
'Will you?' he answered. 'But it is so cold there.'
'Yes, but I shall stay with Palestra. It is quite comfortable.'
'What takes you to Florence?'
'I don't know,' said Hermione slowly.
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