"You are unsparing."
"Was it an accident?"
"No."
"It was a trick, a sham like all the rest?"
"Just like all the rest," said Miranda, wearily.
"I see," said Charnock. "Good-bye."
He went out of the room and closed the door behind him.
It was very quiet and still in the patio. In the square of blue sky there was no cloud; the sunshine poured into the court, only in one corner there was a shadow climbing the wall, where there had been no shadow when he entered the room. He vaguely wondered what the time was, and then someone laughed. Someone above him. He looked up. Jane Holt was leaning over the railing of the balcony.
He made some sort of remark; and he gathered from her reply that he had been asking why she laughed.
"Why did I laugh?" she said. "Do you believe in affinities?"