Endured their surveillance, their constant presence. They were very kind. They were endlessly compassionate. They surrounded her with love and sympathy, as if she might sink into some life-threatening melancholy if left alone for more than five minutes! Existing in a bleak grey world, immured from the ever-changing beauty of sunlight glinting on the waters of the bay, Marie-Claude was conscious that Harriette watched her like a mother hawk anxious for the health of its solitary chick. In the end she could not bear to be watched with such solicitude any longer so she pinned on a bright smile and set herself to get on with her life. It was difficult—no, it was well-nigh impossible to pretend that her heart was not in pieces—but she would do her best. Since time—was it only a week since the man who had become the centre of the world had so cruelly betrayed her?—was not healing her pain, she must learn to live with it. She had her family, her son, all the luxuries that money could buy.
