"I didn't hear you talking to Vere, so I wondered--I almost thought--"
"That I had gone without seeing you? Oh no. It isn't very late. You
don't want to get rid of me at once?"
"Of course not."
His manner--or so it seemed to her--was strangely uneasy and formal,
and she thought his face looked drawn, almost tortured. But the light
was very dim. She could not be sure of that.
Vere had said nothing, had not moved from her seat.
There was a third chair. As Hermione took it and drew it slightly
forward, she looked towards Vere, and thought that she was sitting in
a very strange position. In the darkness it seemed to the mother as if
her child's body were almost crouching in its chair, as if the head
were drooping, as if--
"Vere! Is anything the matter with you?"
Suddenly, as if struck sharply, Vere sprang up and passed into the
darkness of the house, leaving a sound that was like a mingled
exclamation and a sob behind her.
"Emile!"
*****
"Emile!"
"Hermione?"
"What is the matter with Vere? What have you been doing to Vere?"
"I!"
"Yes, you! No one else is here.
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