"Smithie's brother. They were at Cromer."

"Confound Cromer! Yes!"

"How could you bring yourself"

I felt a spasm of petulant annoyance at this unexpected catastrophe.

"I should like to wring Smithie's brother's neck," I said....

Marion spoke in dry, broken fragments of sentences. "You... I'd always
thought that anyhow you couldn't deceive me... I suppose all men are
horrid--about this."

"It doesn't strike me as horrid. It seems to me the most necessary
consequence--and natural thing in the world."

I became aware of some one moving about in the passage, and went and
shut the door of the room, then I walked back to the hearthrug and
turned.

"It's rough on you," I said. "But I didn't mean you to know. You've
never cared for me. I've had the devil of a time. Why should you mind?"

She sat down in a draped armchair. "I HAVE cared for you," she said.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I suppose," she said, "SHE cares for you?"