XI
Doctor Richard Diver and Mrs. Elsie Speers sat in the Café des Alliées in August, under cool and dusty trees. The sparkle of the mica was dulled by the baked ground, and a few gusts of mistral from down the coast seeped through the Esterel and rocked the fishing boats in the harbor, pointing the masts here and there at a featureless sky.
‘I had a letter this morning,’ said Mrs. Speers. ‘What a terrible time you all must have had with those n*****s! But Rosemary said you were perfectly wonderful to her.’
‘Rosemary ought to have a service stripe. It was pretty harrowing, the only person it didn’t disturb was Abe North, he flew off to Havre, he probably doesn’t know about it yet.’
‘I’m sorry Mrs. Diver was upset,’ she said carefully.
Rosemary had written:
Nicole seemed Out of her Min
