CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEJulia woke up suddenly, and wondered what had waked her. She thought it must have been Ellie crying out in her sleep as she sometimes did, not loudly but with a catch of the breath like a sob. She spoke her name gently,
‘Ellie——’
There was no answer. She listened, and could hear from her soft, regular breathing that Ellie was asleep. She might have cried out and yet have been asleep. She thought, ‘It’s so strange—we don’t know where anyone is when they’re asleep. I don’t even know about Ellie. I don’t always know where I’ve been myself.’ She had the feeling of having come up out of a dream once she leaned towards him, pressing her face against the stuff which had left her only at the moment of waking. All that remained of it was a longing to go back again, to escape f
