It had been all she could do to understand
the brilliant conversation. There had been present a budding poet and
a woman painter and she had never heard people talk like that before.
'I didn't speak at all, except to Charles,' she said.
'Oh, Charles was there?'
'Yes. I thought it safer not to talk but I looked as bright as I
could, and of course I asked for cakes and things. They all ate a lot.
I was glad of that. But most of them still looked hungry at the end.
And Charles has taken tickets for me for the concerts, next to him, in
a special corner where you can sometimes hear the music through the
whispering of the audience. That's what he says!'
'But, Henrietta, I have taken tickets for you too.'
'Thank you, but perhaps they will take them back.'
'Henrietta, you really can't sit in a corner with Charles when I'm in
another part of the hall.'
'Can't I? Well, Charles will be very angry, but he'll have to put up
with it. If you explained to him, Aunt Rose, he'd understand. And I'd
really rather sit with you. I shall be able to look at people and if I
crackle my programme you won't glare. Of course, I shall try not to.
Will you explain to him? And I did promise to go to a concert with him
some day.'
'Then you must. I'll tell him that, too. Are you afraid of him,
Henrietta?'
'He shouts,' Henrietta said, 'and I'm sorry for him. And I do like him
very much. I feel inclined to do things just to please him.
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