down dressed for the journey, very agitated at finding the two together. She gave him no opportunity for further conversation, monopolising the attention of the whole household, in searching for something she had mislaid, which it was eventually decided had possibly been left in Hampstead! Her conscience reproached her for her behaviour over lunch, and she found the cup of tea which Margaret pressed upon her before she left "delicious."
"I do so much like this Chinese tea, ever so much better than the Indian. You remember, Gabriel, don't you, that rough tea we used to have from Pounds? …" And she told a wholly irrelevant anecdote of rival grocers and their wares.
She betrayed altogether in the last ten minutes an uneasy semi-consciousness that her visit had not been a great success and talked quickly in belated apology.
"You've been so kind to me. I am afraid I have not responded as I ought. My silly headache, which of course I never exactly had … you know what I mean, don't you? And I did no credit to your beautiful lunch."
Margaret succeeded in assuring her that she had behaved exactly as a guest should, whilst Gabriel stood by silently.
"I hope you will come again," she said, and Anne replied nervously, noncommittal.
