Out of deference to Mrs Bellamy, who was among them, nobody had so far touched on the aspect of Mrs Kerr which most profoundly intrigued them – her friendship with Sydney. Tessa, however, now showed herself lacking in that appreciation of their delicacy with which it had pleased them to credit her. Stretching out a plump, pretty foot to the fire and looking down at it thoughtfully, she remarked, ‘She seems a very kind woman. She’s been so kind to my cousin.’

‘Ah, really, yes?’ said someone innocently. ‘Your cousin’s often with her I believe.’

‘Yes, they are a lot together. Sydney is a very clever girl,’ said Tessa simply; ‘she is too clever for girls of her own age, I sometimes think, though she is so high-spirited and cheerful and amusing that she is always popular. I often forget, when I am with her, how clever she is. Do you know, she studied for years … she has passed …’ Here she enumerated, not accurately, Sydney’s academic distinctions, which while not conveying much to her audience vaguely depressed them.

‘Ah, yes, it is nice for a girl to have a career. But I shouldn’t,’ said a lady with some restraint, tempering her suggestion with a smile, ‘say that Miss Warren was high-spirited exactly.’ The others disagreed too forcibly with Tessa’s opinion of her cousin and respected Tessa too much to say anything at all.

Tessa continued: ‘Sydney is very affectionate.’

‘She is very much … absorbed, isn’t she, by Mrs Kerr?’

‘I have known other cases,’ said somebody else, looking about vaguely for her scissors, ‘of these very violent friendships. One didn’t feel those others were quite healthy.’

‘I should discourage any daughter of mine from a friendship with an older woman. It is never the best women who have these strong influences. I would far rather she lost her head about a man.’

‘Sydney hasn’t lost her head,’ said little Tessa with dignity.

‘Oh but, Mrs Bellamy – I was talking about other cases.’

‘And how few men there are out here – can one wonder the girls are eccentric? They say it’s the same at all these places – not a man to be had. I can’t think why people go on bringing their daughters out.’

‘One wonders, indeed, why some types of women ever come out here.’

‘Mrs Kerr? Oh, do you think ——?’

‘Mmm-mmm.’

‘But she may believe in the sun,’ said Tessa; ‘many people believe in the sun. Of course it’s always been known of, but quite recently a doctor at Baden ——’

‘She is not a sick woman,’ pronounced the lady of the broderie anglaise.

‘N-no?’ said Tessa, petering out. ‘But I’m sure,’ she resumed, after a pause for consideration, ‘that she has interests. I would say she was quite independent. Sydney tells me she likes to be a great deal alone.’