The Forsyte Saga - Volume 1

She drew back to the stairs, but did not descend. Leaning against the

rail she tried to get rid of a feeling of being choked; and she gazed

at the door with a sort of dreadful courage. No! she refused to go down.

Did it matter what people thought of her? They would never know! No one

would help her if she did not help herself! She would go through with

it.

Forcing herself, therefore, to leave the support of the wall, she rang

the bell. The door did not open, and all her shame and fear suddenly

abandoned her; she rang again and again, as though in spite of its

emptiness she could drag some response out of that closed room, some

recompense for the shame and fear that visit had cost her. It did not

open; she left off ringing, and, sitting down at the top of the stairs,

buried her face in her hands.

Presently she stole down, out into the air. She felt as though she had

passed through a bad illness, and had no desire now but to get home as

quickly as she could. The people she met seemed to know where she had

been, what she had been doing; and suddenly--over on the opposite side,

going towards his rooms from the direction of Montpellier Square--she

saw Bosinney himself.

She made a movement to cross into the traffic. Their eyes met, and he

raised his hat. An omnibus passed, obscuring her view; then, from the

edge of the pavement, through a gap in the traffic, she saw him walking

on.

And June stood motionless, looking after him.