"When V.V. gets going," she remarked, "she makes things come alive."
Dr. Martineau hated to be addressed suddenly by strange ladies. He
started, and his face assumed the distressed politeness of the moon at
its full. "Your friend," he said, "interested in archaeology?"
"Interested!" said the stouter lady. "Why! She's a fiend at it. Ever
since we came on Carnac."
"You've visited Carnac?"
"That's where the bug bit her." said the stout lady with a note of
querulous humour. "Directly V.V. set eyes on Carnac, she just turned
against all her up-bringing. 'Why wasn't I told of this before?' she
said. 'What's Notre Dame to this? This is where we came from. This is
the real starting point of the MAYFLOWER. Belinda,' she said, 'we've got
to see all we can of this sort of thing before we go back to America.
They've been keeping this from us.' And that's why we're here right
now instead of being shopping in Paris or London like decent American
women."
The younger lady looked down on her companion with something of the calm
expert attention that a plumber gives to a tap that is misbehaving, and
like a plumber refrained from precipitate action. She stood with the
backs of her hands resting on her hips.
"Well," she said slowly, giving most of the remark to Sir Richmond and
the rest to the doctor.
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