“That is certainly true,” Tora replied bitterly.
“I too have my difficulties,” the Professor said, as if he wanted to take her mind off her other troubles, “and as I am to leave for Salona the day after tomorrow, I have to find quickly another musician for my quartet.”
“Why is that?” Tora asked.
She forced herself to appear interested simply because she loved the Professor and she told herself that whatever her own feelings were at the moment his difficulties were hers as well.
“It seems incredible that it should happen at this moment,” the Professor replied, “but Simonida has had an unfortunate fall and fractured a bone in her right arm. It will be at least a month before it is fully healed.”
Tora knew that Simonida, who was a relative of the Professor, was a woman of nearly forty wh
