‘Isn’t it extraordinary,’ said another, ‘how time seems to have stood still in this place? Nothing’s moved since we’ve been here. Even though I suppose it’s all been advancing towards the Tripos, I don’t _feel_ as if there’d been any step forward. Everything--what’s the word?--static. Or else just making circles. I feel I’ve been sitting in a quiet safe pool for three years.’ ‘And now we’re going to be emptied out.’ And swept into new life, thought Judith longingly. Yet her heart misgave her. The building, caressed with sunset, looked motherly and benign, spreading its sheltering breast for the last time above its midgets. New life might find nothing so secure and tranquil as its dispassionate protection. The clock struck the hour pensively. ‘Well, I think it’s beastly,’ said one. ‘I’m going in to finish packing.’ Where, on this calm lime-scented last evening, was Jennifer? 14 In the end there was no time to say good-bye to anyone. Girls were scattering, flying about with labels and suitcases, or with flat-irons to press the frocks they were to wear in May Week. May Week had been fun last year: five nights’ dancing on end, with Jennifer and a young cousin of hers at Trinity, and a boy in the Navy. This year it had not seemed worth while to accept invitations. While Judith was engaged in strapping her boxes and throwing the accumulated rubbish of three years out of drawers and cupboards into a heap on the floor, a maid came smiling and said a gentleman was waiting downstairs. It was Martin. ‘Martin! Oh, my dear!’ ‘I came on the chance, Judith. I motored up to see a man who’s going abroad. Are you--are you staying up for May Week?’ ‘No, Martin. I’m catching a train in about two hours and going straight home.’ ‘_Really_ home, do you mean? Next door to us?’ ‘Yes. Thank Heaven. It’s not let any more. Mother and I will be there part of the summer anyway. Will you--will any of you be there?’ ‘Mariella’s down there now, with the boy. And Roddy and I are going for a bit. In fact I’m going to-day--motoring. That’s what I came for--to see if you’d care to motor back with me.’ ‘Drive home? Oh, how marvellous! You are an angel, Martin, to think of me.’ He was as shy as ever, bending his head as he talked to her. Observing him she thought that she herself had grown up. The loss of Jennifer had given her a kind of self-assurance and maturity of manner, a staidness. For the first time she was seeing Martin from an entirely detached and unromantic angle, and she thought: “Then this is how I shall see Roddy. He won’t confuse and entangle me any more. All that sort of thing is over for me.” ‘It’s very nice to see you again, Judith. It’s ages since.... You look a bit thin, don’t you?’ ‘It’s those miserable exams, Martin. I did work so hard.... I don’t know why.’ ‘Oh! You shouldn’t have.’ He seemed quite overcome. Dear Martin!... In some corner of her heart a weight was lifting.... Jennifer was suddenly remote.