So the weeks went by. And John and Stephen saw little of each other. Indeed, they saw little of anyone. Then, towards the end of June , Margery Byrne got up for the first time, and little Joan came home from her grandmother’s. In a week Margery was completely and delightedly “up,” full of plans and longing to take up life exactly where she had left it. Stephen found her curiously eager for company, and especially the company of old friends; it seemed to her so long since she had seen them. Very soon she asked why John Egerton was so neglecting them. “Get him to come round, Stephen,” she said. “Ring him up now.” Stephen had lately told her the story of the inquest, of the local feeling and faction; and Margery had at once determined that she would think nothing of it. She would do as the Whittakers did; not that she was prepared in any case to believe evil of John. Yet at the back of her mind there was just a hint of curiosity about it.
So Stephen reluctantly rang him up—reluctantly because he had wanted to work that evening, and because he feared this meeting. But he did not dare to seem unwilling.