sharply observant and subtle, especially with those she loved. She had
noticed the difference between his manner when first they spoke of
Vere's hidden occupation and his manner when last they spoke of it. In
the interval he had found out what it was, and that it was not
reading. Of that she was positive. She was positive also that he did
not wish her to suspect this. Vere must have told him what it was.

It was characteristic of Hermione that at this moment she was free
from any common curiosity as to what it was that Vere did during those
many hours when she was shut up in her room. The thing that hurt her,
that seemed to humiliate her, was the Emile should know what it was
and not she, that Vere should have told Emile and not told her.

As she lay there she cowered under the blow a mutual silence can give,
and something woke up in her, something fiery, something surely that
could act with violence. It startled her, almost as a stranger rushing
into her room would have startled her.

For a moment she thought of her child and her loved friend with a
bitterness that was cruel.

How long had they shared their secret? She wondered, and began to
consider the recent days, searching their hours for those tiny
incidents, those small reticences, avoidances, that to women are
revelations. When had she first noticed a slight change in Emile's
manner to her? When had Vere and he first seemed a little more
intimate, a little more confidential than before? When had she,
Hermione, first felt a little "out of it," not perfectly at ease with
these two dear denizens of her life?