"She thinks you and she might at any rate have been friends."
"We might certainly. That's just"--he continued to laugh--
"why I'm going."
It was as if Maria could feel with this then at last that she had
done her best for each. But she had still an idea. "Shall I tell
her that?"
"No. Tell her nothing."
"Very well then." To which in the next breath Miss Gostrey added:
"Poor dear thing!"
Her friend wondered; then with raised eyebrows: "Me?"
"Oh no. Marie de Vionnet."
He accepted the correction, but he wondered still. "Are you so
sorry for her as that?"
It made her think a moment--made her even speak with a smile. But
she didn't really retract. "I'm sorry for us all!"
IV
He was to delay no longer to re-establish communication with Chad,
and we have just seen that he had spoken to Miss Gostrey of this
intention on hearing from her of the young man's absence. It was
not moreover only the assurance so given that prompted him; it was
the need of causing his conduct to square with another profession
still--the motive he had described to her as his sharpest for now
getting away. If he was to get away because of some of the
relations involved in staying, the cold attitude toward them might
look pedantic in the light of lingering on.
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