“I am a married man,” he answered, without raising his head. “I do not play games any more.”
“Go and see your friends then.”
“I have no friends now.”
“Silly, silly, silly! You can’t stop indoors all day!”
“I want to see no one but you.” He spat on to an olive-tree.
“Now, Gino, don’t be silly. Go and see your friends, and bring them to see me. We both of us like society.”
He looked puzzled, but allowed himself to be persuaded, went out, found that he was not as friendless as he supposed, and returned after several hours in altered spirits. Lilia congratulated herself on her good management.
“I’m ready, too, for people now,” she said. “I mean to wake you all up, just as I woke up Sawston. Let’s have plenty of men—and make them bring their womenkind. I mean to have real English tea-parties.”
“There is my aunt and her husband; but I thought you did not want to receive my relatives.”
“I never said such a—”