after his arrival in London, and since she had warned him that he might expect a hot time, he took with him, in order to equalize the temperature on both sides, the contents of the packet that lived under lock and key in his despatch-box. He had himself no wish to indulge in recrimination; as he had told her, he wanted and entreated her help, but if she was proposing to hurl, so to speak, the returned dressing-bag at his head, the letter seemed to him of the nature of a gun that wanted a great deal of silencing.
She was at home when he arrived, and he was at once shown up into the room he knew so well. The outside blinds were down to keep out the stress of the August heat, and the air was thick with the scent of flowers. Then there came the rustle of a dress on the landing outside, and she entered.
' Are you there, Bertie?' she asked. ' It is so dark one can see nothing.'
She drew up one of the blinds.
' That is better,' she said. ' Now, what do you want?'
She gave him no other greeting of hand-shake, but sat down on the sofa opposite the chair where he had been sitting. At the sight of her all his pent-up anger and indignation rushed to the surface; he had not known before how vile what she had done seemed to him.
' What have I done to you that you should treat me like this?' he broke out. ' Once I gave you my heart, myself, all I was, and you laughed at me. Then—oh my God! it is too much.'
She looked at him in blank surprise.
' You got over it,' she said. ' You married somebody else. I think I behaved rather well. If I had chosen I might have made things unpleasant for you. But I am not that sort of woman.'
Bertie heard himself laugh, though he was unconscious of any amusement.
