“I’m not sure. I think in a month or so. He’s so busy in London.” “By the way”, she said, “I want you to meet an old friend of mine, Robert Holton.”
“Very pleased to meet you, Mr Lewis,” said the young man as they shook hands.
“Enchanté,” said Lewis, bowing from the waist and allowing his hand to stay too long in Holton’s. Such a nice young man, thought Lewis, and wondered if....
“What,” said Carla, “is Regarde espousing now?” She spoke quickly and Lewis could see that she understood him and this pleased him although, in a sense, they were rivals.
“As always: the advanced, the revolutionary....”
“And the honest?”
“But of course, darling, we are never consciously dishonest, though it is hard sometimes not being.”
“Perhaps in life but not in art.” She spoke severely. She was a Latin; he could tell now from her accent.
“You’re not English?” He changed the subject.
“No, I’m a Florentine.”