"No," said Lux, bored with the subject of Adrian.
"And I hope you have told Miss Joliffe that there will be one more for tea."
"He doesn't eat at tea-time, so I didn't bother."
Oh, stop talking little sillinesses, Lucy wanted to say, and look at Innes. What is happening to her? Look at the girl who was so radiant only last Saturday afternoon. Look at her. What does she remind you of? Sitting there so calm and beautiful and all wrong inside. What does she remind you of? One of those brilliant things that grow in the woods, isn't it? One of those apparently perfect things that collapse into dust at a touch because they are hollow inside.
"Innes is not looking well," she said in careful understatement to Lux as they went upstairs.
"She is looking very ill," Lux said bluntly. "And would you wonder?"
"Isn't there something one can do about it?" Lucy asked.
"One could find her the kind of post she deserves," Lux said dryly. "As there is no post available at all, that doesn't seem likely to materialise."
"You mean that she will just have to begin to answer advertisements?"
"Yes. It is only a fortnight to the end of term, and there are not likely to be any more posts in Miss Hodge's gift now. Most places for September are filled by this time. The final irony, isn't it? That the most brilliant student we have had for years is reduced to application-in-own-handwriting-with-five-copies-of-testimonials-not-returnable."