They went into the hothouses.
“It reminds me of Colombo,” Rose said, of the moist, hot atmosphere.
An odd wave of nostalgia came over her, less for the East than for the sense of something familiar, well known to her, and holding none of the pitfalls that she felt to be everywhere in the strange surroundings of her new life.
“Why, I’ve only this minute thought of it, but of course you must have known the Powerfields in Colombo!” Diana’s tone of pleased discovery interrupted her thoughts.
“The Powerfields?”
“Betty Powerfield was a friend of mine before she married. I haven’t seen her since she married Sir William.”
“We were up-country most of the time, we didn’t know any of the Government House people; of course I’ve seen them at the Races, and places like that, but that’s all.”
“How stupid of me! I forgot you were up-country. Of course, one forgets the distances out there.”
Rose swallowed audibly.
“We were in Colombo quite a lot, as well as up-country but we didn’t know the Government House people anyway. Jim didn’t even put our names down in the book, so of course we didn’t get asked to even the official parties. It wouldn’t have been any use.”