ant, and I don't think we'll take yours up or give
you any ourselves. So that I suppose you won't wish to join us."

And she held out her hand in good-bye.

Then Mrs. Fisher, her gaze diverted to Mrs. Arbuthnot, who
inspired trust and liking even in Tube officials, felt that she would
be idiotic to lose the opportunity of being in Italy in the particular
conditions offered, and that she and this calm-browed woman between
them would certainly be able to curb the other one when she had her
attacks. So she said, taking Mrs. Arbuthnot's offered hand, "Very
well. I waive references."

She waived references.

The two as they walked to the station in Kensington High Street
could not help thinking that this way of putting it was lofty. Even
Mrs. Arbuthnot, spendthrift of excuses for lapses, thought Mrs. Fisher
might have used other words; and Mrs. Wilkins, by the time she got to
the station, and the walk and the struggle on the crowded pavement with
other people's umbrellas had warmed her blood, actually suggested
waiving Mrs. Fisher.

"If there is any waiving to be done, do let us be the ones who
waive," she said eagerly.

But Mrs. Arbuthnot, as usual, held on to Mrs. Wilkins; and
presently, having cooled down in the train, Mrs. Wilkins announced that
at San Salvatore Mrs. Fisher would find her level. "I see her finding
her level there," she said, her eyes very bright.

Whereupon Mrs. Arbuthnot, sitting with her quiet hands folded,
turned over in her mind how best she could help Mrs. Wilkins not to see
quite so much; or at least, if she must see, to see in silence.

Chapter 4

It had been arranged that Mrs. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Wilkins,
traveling together, should arrive at San Salvatore on the evening of
March 31st--the owner, who told them how to get there, appreciated
their disinclination to begin their time in it on April 1st--and Lady
Caroline and Mrs. Fisher, as yet unacquainted and therefore under no
obligations to bore each other on the journey, for only towards the end
would they find out by a process of sifting who they were, were to
arrive on the morning of April 2nd. In this way everything would be
got nicely ready for the two who seemed, in spite of the equality of
the sharing, yet to have something about them of guests.

There were disagreeable incidents towards the end of March, when
Mrs. Wilkins, her heart in her mouth and her face a mixture of guilt,
terror and determination, told her h