Acquaintances
showed signs of developing into friends, for that one tie to Mrs.
Parry's drawing-room had inevitably split into many other ties attached
to different parts of England, and sometimes these alliances seemed
cynically fragile, and sometimes painfully acute, lacking as they did
the supporting background of organised English life. One night when the
moon was round between the trees, Evelyn M. told Helen the story of
her life, and claimed her everlasting friendship; or another occasion,
merely because of a sigh, or a pause, or a word thoughtlessly dropped,
poor Mrs. Elliot left the villa half in tears, vowing never again to
meet the cold and scornful woman who had insulted her, and in truth,
meet again they never did. It did not seem worth while to piece together
so slight a friendship.
Hewet, indeed, might have found excellent material at this time up
at the villa for some chapters in the novel which was to be called
"Silence, or the Things People don't say." Helen and Rachel had become
very silent. Having detected, as she thought, a secret, and judging that
Rachel meant to keep it from her, Mrs. Ambrose respected it carefully,
but from that cause, though unintentionally, a curious atmosphere of
reserve grew up between them. Instead of sharing their views upon all
subjects, and plunging after an idea wherever it might lead, they spoke
chiefly in comment upon the people they saw, and the secret between
them made itself felt in what they said even of Thornburys and Elliots.
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