Keeling closed the front-door into the street.
‘Ah, yes, and left her room lit,’ he said, joking with him out of sheer happiness.
‘I was in her room,’ said Charles. ‘I was packing some things which she had not time enough to pack herself.’
For a moment it seemed to Keeling that the light and the walls and the floor quivered.
‘Nonsense, Propert,’ he said, and his voice quivered too.
‘Perhaps you would like to come up and see for yourself, sir,’ said Charles.
Keeling looked at him with perfectly blank eyes.
‘Do you really mean she has gone?’ he asked.
‘Yes, sir. I felt sure you understood that. She said she had told you.’
He had grasped the back of a chair that stood near him, and leaned on it heavily. Then recovering his steadiness he spoke again.