“It can’t go on.  Why shouldn’t we be happy?

“Why shouldn’t we?” he insisted.  “It’s not as if we hadn’t tried.”

“I—­can’t.”

“You’re afraid?”

“Oh, no, I’m not afraid.  It’s simply that I can’t.”

“You think it’s a sin?  It isn’t.  It’s we who are sinned against.

“If you’re afraid of deceiving Mary—­I don’t care if I do.  She deceived me first.  Besides we can’t.  She knows and she doesn’t mind.  She can’t suffer as you suffer.  She can’t feel as you feel.  She can’t care.”

“She does care.  She must have cared horribly or she wouldn’t have done it.”

“She didn’t.  Anybody would have done for her as well as me.  I tell you I don’t want to talk about Mary or to think about her.”

“Then I must.”

“No.  You must think of me.  You don’t owe anything to Mary.  It’s me you’re sinning against.  You think a lot about sinning against Mary, but you think nothing about sinning against me.”

“When did I ever sin against you?”

“Last year.  When you went away.  That was the beginning of it all.  Why did you go, Gwenda?  You knew.  We should have been all right if you hadn’t.”

“I went because of Ally.  She had to be married.  I thought—­perhaps—­if I wasn’t there——­”

“That I’d marry her?  Good God!  Ally!  What on earth made you think I’d do that?  I wouldn’t have married her if there hadn’t been another woman in the world.”

“I couldn’t be sure.  But after what you said about her I had to give her a chance.”

“What did I say?”

“That she’d die or go mad if somebody didn’t marry her.”

“I never said that.  I wouldn’t be likely to.”

“But you did, dear.  You frightened me.  So I went away to see if that would make it any better.”

“Any better for whom?”

“For Ally.”

“Oh—­Ally.  I see.”

“I thought if it didn’t—­if you didn’t marry her—­I could come back again.  And when I did come back you’d married Mary.”

“And Mary knew that?”

“There’s no good bothering about Mary now.”

Utterly weary of their strife, she lay back and closed her eyes.

“Poor Gwenda.”

Again he had compassion on her.  He waited.

“You see how it was,” she said.

“It doesn’t help us much, dear.  What are we going to do?”

“Not what you want, Steven, I’m afraid.”

“Not now.  But some day.  You’ll see it differently when you’ve thought of it.”

“Never.  Never any day.  I’ve had all these months to think of it and I can’t see it differently yet.”

“You have thought of it?”

“Not like that.”

“But you did think.  You knew it would come to this.”

“I tried not to make it come.  Do you know why I tried?  I don’t think it was for Molly.  It was for myself.  It was because I wanted to keep you.  That’s why I shall never do what you want.”