II

What sort of people had they been? She could not remember ever having met a lodger face to face, or heard any sounds in the many downstairs rooms.⁠ ⁠… Perhaps it had been partly through going out so early and coming back only when the A.B.C. closed and being out or away so much at weekends⁠ ⁠… but also she must have been oblivious.⁠ ⁠… The house had been her own; waiting for her when she found it; the quiet road of large high grey mysterious houses, the two rows of calm balconied façades, the green squares at either end, the green door she waited for as she turned unseeing into the road from the quiet thoroughfare of Endsleigh Gardens, her triumphant faithful latchkey, the sheltered dimness of the hall, the great staircase, the many large closed doors, the lonely obscurity of her empty top floor. What had come now was the fulfilment of the apprehension she had had when Mrs. Bailey had spoken the word boarders. Here they were. They would come and go and go up and downstairs from their bedrooms to that dining-room where the disturbing disclosure had been made and the unknown drawing-room.⁠ ⁠… Perhaps it would be a failure. She could not imagine Mrs. Bailey and the two vague furtive children in skimpy blue serge dresses dealing with the young Norwegian gentleman. He would not stay.⁠ ⁠… If boarders failed Mrs. Bailey might give up the house altogether.⁠ ⁠… She found herself sitting in her outdoor things with the large volume heavy on her knees in the middle of the room. She felt too languid and miserable to get up and take the small chair and the large book to the table and began wretchedly turning the pages with her gloved hands. Here it was. She glanced through the long article, reading passages here and there. There seemed to be nothing more; she had gathered the gist of it all in glancing through it at Wimpole Street. There was no need to have brought it home. It was quite clear that she belonged to the lymphatico-nervous class. It was the worst of the four classes of humanity. But all the symptoms were hers.⁠ ⁠… She read once more the account of the nervo-bilious type. It was impossible to fit into that. Those people were dark and sanguine and energetic. It was very strange. Having bilious attacks