“You are looking well,” her sister remarked. “I wish I could take a holiday. Single girls don’t realise how lucky they are until after they are married. Jim and I spent our honeymoon at the Zuurberg. I thought it dull.”
Esmé reflected, while she regarded her sister with a puzzled scrutiny, that it was scarcely surprising her marriage had proved on the whole a disappointing affair. To feel dull on one’s honeymoon is not a promising beginning.
“I thought it wonderful,” she said.
“You had a good time, I suppose. Were there many people there?”
“A fair number. But it’s the place itself. It is lovely.”
Mrs Bainbridge looked unconvinced.
“People, not places, make a holiday enjoyable,” she said with a certain worldly wisdom which jarred on her hearer. “Were there any men there?”
“A few—yes.”
Her sister laughed.
“You always get on with men,” she said. “I wonder you don’t marry.”