What was she doing now?
Lying on a sofa and looking at the ceiling, perhaps.

He could imagine her doing that, and Helen in an arm-chair, with her hands on the arm of it, so--looking ahead of her, with her great big eyes--oh no, they'd be talking, of course, about the dance.

But suppose Rachel was going away in a day or two, suppose this was the end of her visit, and her father had arrived in one of the steamers anchored in the bay,--it was intolerable to know so little.

Therefore he exclaimed, "How d'you know what you feel, Hirst ?" to stop himself from thinking.
But Hirst did not help him, and the other people with their aimless movements and their unknown lives were disturbing, so that he longed for the empty darkness.

The first thing he looked for when he stepped out of the hall door was the light of the Ambroses' villa.