"Well!" Patricia gave a startled exclamation. Then she sat down and began to laugh. "What ages ago it seems!" Really, it was incredible! She had almost forgotten the studio and Amy's warning and Harry's arrival. So much had happened in the interval, so poignant had been her emotions, that the reference made her breathless. "Well!"
"I heard Harry was going abroad," pursued Amy, again with that sharp scrutiny. "I was afraid...."
"Afraid? Oh, that I might be going, too! But why, Amy? I should have thought you would have known ... Nothing could happen to me—ever—that I didn't ... I thought ... I thought a girl ought to be free to live with any man she chose ... to see...."
Patricia was half-laughing. For this moment she was malicious in the ridicule of such singular concern. She was immediately to learn the occasion of it. Amy, who sat in the only armchair in the room, which had been covered with horsehair, and super-covered (as it were) by a loose envelope that was washable, looked disagreeably back at Patricia in recognition of such levity. Her face, under the stress of recent events, was losing its clearness, and was developing a rough greyness of colour. Her eyes protruded, and the rims of them were faintly pink. Amy was ageing quickly. By thirty she might be unsightly. She was old, and stale, and without any sort of colour or imagination or quality. She repelled Patricia, as a poor relation might have repelled a busy man in difficulties, or as a sick person repels a healthy one.
"I know," she whispered. "I've tried it. I went down to the country with Jack. But I couldn't stand it. It was awful. I left him as soon as we got there. Patricia, I couldn't have stayed there with him."
Patricia wheeled round at the incredible announcement. She stared at her friend. An exclamation burst from her lips.
"But Jack!" she cried. "Jack!"
Amy misunderstood her; she thought Patricia was still in a state to harp on the inconsiderateness to Jack.
"Oh, he doesn't matter. He's quite all right——."
"I was thinking ... Yes ... I expect he's all right; but I was thinking...." stammered Patricia. She was aghast. "Why on earth, if you were going, did you go with somebody who bores you? Surely it was madness! Oh, my dear! ... Amy, you must admit that Jack...."