I thought myself that anything more hideous than that orange red could hardly have been imagined.
Mrs Leidner had brought with her from the antika-room a very delicate little saucer broken in several pieces, and this she now proceeded to join together.
I watched her for a minute or two and then asked if I could help.
Oh, yes, there are plenty more.
She fetched quite a supply of broken pottery and we set to work.
I soon got into the hang of it and she praised my ability.
I suppose most nurses are handy with their fingers.
How busy everybody is! said Mrs Mercado. It makes me feel dreadfully idle.
Of course I am idle.
Why shouldnt you be if you like? said Mrs Leidner. Her voice was quite uninterested.
At twelve we had lunch.
Afterwards Dr Leidner and Mr Mercado cleaned some pottery, pouring a solution of hydrochloric acid over it.
One pot went a lovely plum colour and a pattern of bulls horns came out on another one.
It was really quite magical.
All the dried mud that no washing would remove sort of foamed and boiled away.
Mr Carey and Mr Coleman went out on the dig and Mr Reiter went off to the photographic-room.
What will you do, Louise? Dr Leidner asked his wife.
I suppose youll rest for a bit?
I gathered that Mrs Leidner usually lay down every afternoon.
Ill rest for about an hour.
Then perhaps Ill go out for a short stroll.
Good.
Nurse will go with you, wont you?
Of course, I said.
No, no, said Mrs Leidner, I like going alone.
Nurse isnt to feel so much on duty that Im not allowed out of her sight.
Oh, but Id like to come, I said.
No, really, Id rather you didnt. She was quite firm almost peremptory.
I must be by myself every now and then.
Its necessary to me.
I didnt insist, of course. But as I went off for a short sleep myself it struck me as odd that Mrs Leidner, with her nervous terrors, should be quite content to walk by herself without any kind of protection.
When I came out of my room at half-past three the courtyard was deserted save for a little boy with a large copper bath who was washing pottery, and Mr Emmott, who was sorting and arranging it.
As I went towards them Mrs Leidner came in through the archway.
She looked more alive than I had seen her yet.
Her eyes shone and she looked uplifted and almost gay.
Dr Leidner came out from the laboratory and joined her.
He was showing her a big dish with bulls horns on it.
The prehistoric levels are being extraordinarily productive, he said.
Its been a good season so far.
Finding that tomb right at the beginning was a real piece of luck.
The only person who might complain is Father Lavigny.
Weve had hardly any tablets so far.
He doesnt seem to have done very much with the few we have had, said Mrs Leidner dryly.
He may be a very fine epigraphist but hes a remarkably lazy one.
He spends all his afternoons sleeping.
We miss Byrd, said Dr Leidner.
This man strikes me as slightly unorthodox though, of course, Im not competent to judge.
But one or two of his translations have been surprising, to say the least of it.
I can hardly believe, for instance, that hes right about that inscribed brick, and yet he must know.
After tea Mrs Leidner asked me if I would like to stroll down to the river.