‘Yet you said you felt lonely,’ says Susan anxiously.
‘Yes—I know.’ She looks down, as if puzzled, uncertain how to go on. ‘Still, I would rather be lonely than go out into the world again.’
‘Poor thing!’ thinks Susan. ‘I was right; no doubt she has just lost everyone that was dear to her.’ She glances at Ella, as if in search of crape, but Ella’s navy-blue skirt and pretty pale-blue linen blouse seem miles away from woe; and, yes, Betty had seen that blue bow near her neck.
‘I know this garden so well,’ says Susan, with a view to changing the sad subject. ‘We used to come here often before you came. Mr. Wyndham sometimes stayed here for weeks at a time, but now, of course, that is all changed. Oh, I see you have planted out some asters in the round bed. They will be lovely later on. I suppose’—thoughtfully—‘you like gardening?’
‘I love it!’ says Ella, with enthusiasm. ‘Only I don’t know anything about it. Mrs. Denis gives me hints.’
‘I love it, too,’ says Susan, ‘but for all that’—as if a little ashamed of herself—‘I like to see people sometimes. I couldn’t live on gardening alone, and you’ll find you can’t, either. In fact’—gaily—‘you have found it out already. That’s why you called us in. Oh, you’ll have to come over to our place. Do you like tennis?’
‘I have never played it.’
‘Golf, then?’
‘No.’ Her tone is very sad, and Carew turns sharply upon poor Susan, who had only meant to do her best.
‘There are other things in the world besides golf and tennis,’ says he.