And he disappeared into the hall once more. I did not see him again until he got into bed with me at two o’clock the next morning. I spent the rest of the day wondering whether I was annoyed or not and whether his forgetfulness had or had not been a serious matrimonial offence. I decided finally as I sat watching the television with Pascal and eating three helpings of chocolate mousse that I was not annoyed at all. I did not expect him to remember, and I did not blame him when he forgot. What I did feel, and this was quite a different matter, what I did feel was envy. A more serious affair than annoyance, though not perhaps so much to my discredit.

After this I made no artificial attempts to keep any kind of social life of my own going. I fell back heavily and silently on my dignity and my resources. Then one afternoon, about three weeks after our arrival, when I was sitting alone at home, I had a visitor. Flora and Joseph had gone with Pascal to the theatre gardens: she was enamoured of the theatre in a true, old-fashioned style, and would hang around in the garden outside for hours saying hello to actors as they came and went. They were happy to say hello to Pascal: she was a pretty girl. In their absence I was trying to feed the munching jaws of my mind by reading an Italian novel, and was just looking for the dictionary when the doorbell rang. I could not think of anyone that it was likely to be, and I felt excited as I went downstairs to open the door; but when I got there it was my old school friend Mary Scott. We stared at each other for too long a hostile instant, and then she said nervously and gaily:

“Why, Emma, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Mary,” I said, “how nice to see you, what a surprise,” and I remembered just in time not to try to kiss her cheek. I had grown so accustomed to cheek-kissing that I could think of no other way of greeting her. I could not offer her my hand, so we stood there, looking at each other, until I said, “Do come in,” and added as an afterthought, “You haven’t changed at all either.”