We have decided to withdraw altogether--at all events for the
present. I shall see no one except my relatives.'
Edith listened with a face of astonishment.
'You won't even see ME?' she exclaimed.
'Indeed, I have no wish to lose your friendship. Yet I am ashamed
to ask you to come here when I can never return your visits.'
'Oh, please don't put it in that way! But it seems so very
strange.'
Edith could not help conjecturing the true significance of this
resolve. But, as is commonly the case with people in easy
circumstances, she found it hard to believe that her friends were
so straitened as to have a difficulty in supporting the ordinary
obligations of a civilised state.
'I know how precious your husband's time is,' she added, as if to
remove the effect of her last remark. 'Surely, there's no harm in
my saying --we know each other well enough--you wouldn't think it
necessary to devote an evening to entertaining us just because
you had given us the pleasure of your company. I put it very
stupidly, but I'm sure you understand me, Amy. Don't refuse just
to come to our house now and then.
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