Soon they too passed down the stairs, curtains were drawn back, and
Maggie was sitting, quite suddenly, in a large desert of gold and
red plush, with emptiness on every side of it and a hungry-looking
crowd of people behind a wooden partition staring at her in such a
way that she felt as though she had no clothes on. She gave a
hurried glance at these people and turned round blushing.
"Why don't they sit with us?" she whispered to Martin.
"They're the Pit and we're the Stalls," he whispered to her, but
that comforted her very little.
"Won't people come and sit where we are?" she asked.
"Oh yes; we're early," he told her.
Soon she was more composed and happier. She sat very close to
Martin, her knee against his and his hand near to hers, just
touching the outside of her palm. Her ring sparkled and the three
little pearls smiled at her. As he breathed she breathed too, and it
seemed to her that their bodies rose and fell as one body. Without
looking directly at him, which would, she knew, embarrass him before
all those hungry people behind her, she could out of the corner of
her eye see the ruddy brown of his cheek and the hard thick curve of
his shoulder.
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