"Nicky thinks he's somewhere down in Sussex," said Jane.
"And where's she?"
"Wherever he is, I imagine."
"I gave her six months, if you remember."
"I wonder," said Laura, "why he doesn't turn up."
"Probably," said Nina, "because he doesn't want to."
"He might write. It isn't like him not to."
"No," said Jane, "it isn't like him." She rose. "Good-bye, I'm going."
She went, with a pain in her heart and a sudden fog in her brain that blurred the splendour of Hambleby.
"Perhaps," Laura continued, "he thinks we want to drop him. You know, if he has married a servant-girl it's what he would think."