‘Yes,’ said Gudrun automatically, taking no real heed.

‘Let me look,’ said Gerald, reaching forward for the book. But Hermione ignored him, he must not presume, before she had finished. But he, his will as unthwarted and as unflinching as hers, stretched forward till he touched the book. A little shock, a storm of revulsion against him, shook Hermione unconsciously. She released the book when he had not properly got it, and it tumbled against the side of the boat and bounced into the water.

‘There!’ sang Hermione, with a strange ring of malevolent victory. ‘I’m so sorry, so awfully sorry. Can’t you get it, Gerald?’

This last was said in a note of anxious sneering that made Gerald’s veins