Nell stops crying after a few moments.

NELL I’ve messed up your coat. I’ve got a hanky somewhere.

ERIC Would you like to … ? Here …

NELL Yes. Thank you. (She uses his handkerchief.) I came too soon after all. I hated waiting a whole year but … well, anyway. Thank you, it’s a bit wet. Should I keep it? Oh look, I’ve found mine, we can swap.

ERIC Don’t you worry about anything. What a shame you had to come on your own. You have another sister, I believe. Or a brother?

NELL No. Why?

ERIC Oh. Flora was anxious to return to England to be an aunt, she said.

NELL Yes. I had a baby in October. He only lived a little while, unfortunately. There was something wrong.

ERIC Oh. I’m so sorry.

NELL It’s why I couldn’t come before.

ERIC Yes, I see. What rotten luck. What was his name?

NELL Sasha.

MRS SWAN Alexander, really. Alexander Percival Crewe.

NELL How nice of you to ask. Nobody ever does. I say, how about that blossom!

ERIC Yes, it’s quite a spot, isn’t it? I hope you stay a while. First time in India?

NELL Yes.

ERIC Mind the loose stone here. May I … ?

NELL Thank you. I’m sorry I blubbed, Mr Swan.

ERIC I won’t tell anyone. Do call me Eric, by the way. Nobody calls me Mr Swan.

NELL Eric, then.

ERIC Do you like cricket?

NELL (Laughs) Well, I don’t play a lot.

ERIC There’s a match tomorrow.

NELL Here?

ERIC Oh yes. We’re going to field a Test team next year, you know.

NELL We?

ERIC India.

NELL Oh.

As they go, Pike enters, looking for the right grave. He finds it, he takes his hat off and stands looking at it.

FLORA ‘Darling, that’s all from Jummapur, because how I’m packed, portrait and all, and Mr Coomaraswami is coming to take me to the station. I’ll post this in Jaipur as soon as I get there. I’m not going to post it here because I’m not. I feel fit as two lops this morning, and happy, too, because something good happened here which made me feel halfway better about Modi and getting back to Paris too late. That was a sin I’ll carry to my grave, but perhaps my soul will stay behind as a smudge of paint on paper, as if I’d always been here, like Radha who was the most beautiful of the herdswomen, undressed for love in an empty house.’

Flora puts her letter into an envelope and seals it.

Elsewhere, Nell kneels on the floor, going through the contents of Flora’s—duplicate—suitcase. She looks at the blue dress briefly. She finds the rolled-up canvas. She looks at it and puts it back.

Nazrul enters to take Flora’s suitcase to the train.

Flora goes to the train carrying her copy of Emily Eden.

The train makes its reappearance. Coomaraswami, holding his yellow parasol, is on the station platform to take leave of Flora. He garlands her. Nazrul puts Flora’s suitcase on the rack above her seat. Flora enters the train-compartment, gives Nazrul a tip, and bids him farewell.