It would be
charming to spend a few weeks there with an adequate income; for its
pleasures had hitherto been closed to her, and she looked forward to her
visit as if it were to a foreign city. But though she would not confess
it to herself, her desire to see Arthur was the strongest of her motives.
Time and absence had deadened a little the intensity of her feelings, and
she could afford to acknowledge that she regarded him with very great
affection. She knew that he would never care for her, but she was content
to be his friend. She could think of him without pain.
Susie stayed in Paris for three weeks to buy some of the clothes which
she asserted were now her only pleasure in life, and then went to London.
She wrote to Arthur, and he invited her at once to lunch with him at a
restaurant. She was vexed, for she felt they could have spoken more
freely in his own house; but as soon as she saw him, she realized that
he had chosen their meeting-place deliberately. The crowd of people that
surrounded them, the gaiety, the playing of the band, prevented any
intimacy of conversation.
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