'Oh, don't worry, Bruce! They were sitting down under a tree and Nurse saw them holding hands.'
Bruce looked horrified.
'Holding hands,' continued Edith; 'and I can't help thinking they must be engaged. Isn't it extraordinary Hyacinth hasn't told me? What do you think?'
Bruce got up from the table, lighted a cigarette, and walked round the little room.
'I don't know. I must consider. I must think it over.' He paused a minute. 'I am pained. Pained and surprised. A girl like Hyacinth, a friend of yours, behaving like a housemaid out with a soldier in the open street!'
'It wasn't the street, Bruce.'
'It's the same idea.'
'Quite a quiet part of the Gardens.'
'That makes their conduct worse. I scarcely think, after what you have told me, that I can allow you to go out with Hyacinth tomorrow.'
'How can you be so absurd? I must go; I want to hear about it.'