Part Two
Chapter 19: Lying to Mr. Emerson
The Miss Alans were found in their beloved temperance hotel near
Bloomsbury--a clean, airless establishment much patronized by
provincial England. They always perched there before crossing the
great seas, and for a week or two would fidget gently over
clothes, guide-books, mackintosh squares, digestive bread, and
other Continental necessaries. That there are shops abroad, even
in Athens, never occurred to them, for they regarded travel as a
species of warfare, only to be undertaken by those who have been
fully armed at the Haymarket Stores. Miss Honeychurch, they
trusted, would take care to equip herself duly. Quinine could now
be obtained in tabloids; paper soap was a great help towards
freshening up one's face in the train. Lucy promised, a little
depressed.
"But, of course, you know all about these things, and you have
Mr. Vyse to help you. A gentleman is such a stand-by."
Mrs. Honeychurch, who had come up to town with her daughter,
began to drum nervously upon her card-case.
"We think it so good of Mr. Vyse to spare you," Miss Catharine
continued. "It is not every young man who would be so unselfish.
But perhaps he will come out and join you later on."
"Or does his work keep him in London?" said Miss Teresa, the more
acute and less kindly of the two sisters.
"However, we shall see him when he sees you off. I do so long to
see him."
"No one will see Lucy off," interposed Mrs. Honeychurch. "She
doesn't like it."
"No, I hate seeings-off," said Lucy.
"Really? How funny! I should have thought that in this case--"
"Oh, Mrs. Honeychurch, you aren't going? It is such a pleasure to
have met you!"
They escaped, and Lucy said with relief: "That's all right. We
just got through that time."
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