Haven't you heard ?" He nodded.

"Yes, I had heard.

I hoped it wasn't true." "Yes, it is true." Her two hands fastened very tightly upon the back of a chair.

There was something indescribably pathetic in the action.

She seemed on the verge of saying more, but in the end she did not say it.
She just stood looking at him with the wide grey eyes that tried so hard not to be tragic.
Jeff stood looking back with great sturdiness and not much apparent feeling.