He added abruptly:
‘I am sorry for you, Helen.’
‘And I, for you,’ I said.
‘It is the same for us both, in a way; for everybody, I suppose.’
‘No, not quite everybody, I think; but for you and me. I am glad we have met again, Hugo, so glad.’
He put out his hand across the table and took mine.
‘I wondered if you would come to-day,’ he said.
The waitress had brought our tea and put it down, but we had not noticed her.
There was to us both, I think, great consolation in this clasping of hands: strength and companionship in a world of destruction.
After tea we went out in the rain, and walked in the Green Park.