Chapter XI
ARTHUR went back to London next day.
Susie felt it was impossible any longer to stay in that deserted studio, and accepted a friend’s invitation to spend the winter in Italy. The good Dr. Porhoët remained in Paris with his books and his occult studies.
Susie travelled slowly through Tuscany and Umbria. Margaret had not written to her, and Susie, on leaving Paris, had sent her friend’s belongings to an address from which she knew they would eventually be forwarded. She could not bring herself to write. In answer to a note announcing her change of plans, Arthur wrote briefly that he had much work to do and was delivering a new course of lectures at St. Luke’s; he had lately been appointed visiting surgeon to another hospital, and his private practice was increasing. He did not mention Margaret. His letter was abrupt, formal, and constrained. Susie, reading it for the tenth time, could make little of it. She saw that he wrote only from civility, without interest; and there was nothing to indicate his state of mind. Susie and her companion had made up their minds to pass some weeks in Rome; and here, to her great astonishment, Susie had news of Haddo and his wife. It appeared that they had spent some time
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