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the words with difficulty. Her sword had been turned in her hand.

‘I don’t need defences,’ said Hester, moving now away. ‘When I want Clive to defend me with you, I’ll tell him so. He has no right to make up stories about his wife in order to placate his mother and then to conceal from her what he has been doing.—But that side of it concerns him and me;—not you.—That is all I have to say.’ She walked off towards the station road.

‘You remember, perhaps, that Celia and Norah expect you to tea?’ Monica slightly raised her voice to follow her with an icy conciseness. ‘I understood that you and Clive were coming.’

Hester paused to listen, her back to her. ‘I perfectly remember,’ she said, not turning her head. ‘I don’t care to come. I don’t care to smile and pretend after this scene; you give me too much of it to do as it is. I shall take the train to town and not get back until after dinner:—you may tell Clive so if you see him. I am not such an actress as you are.’ She walked rapidly away.

‘Well, there’s that.’ Monica heard herself utter the absurd comment as she stood still and watched Hester disappearing round the corner of the road. ‘There’s that,’ she repeated and, slowly turning, she