reasoning.

Even though he was there, in the room, and even though she would have loved a conversation with him, still she did not go up to him. Instead, she found some other people with whom to speak. But she said very little, and probably heard even less, so distracted was she. Every few moments her gaze would look for him: there he was, chatting away to someone; and there he went now to get a cup of tea. He did not come up to her either, and she wondered if perhaps they had a similar reasoning to why they were staying apart: that it was a lot more pleasant to communicate privately, and there was no point having a short and superficial conversation now, when there would be the opportunity to speak honestly and deeply at some later date. Thus it was that she was neither offended nor disappointed by him, and she knew that likewise, her own behaviour had not troubled him in the slightest way. If he did indeed think like her, then she appreciated him all the more for it.