He took her hand. She immediately took it away and drew back coldly.
"A wonderful situation! Do you think Van Buren will enjoy it?" she asked satirically.
"Van Buren! What on earth do you mean, Val? Do you suppose for a minute that I'd talk about it?"
"I know you will. You couldn't resist it. It's impayable you say.... Oh, but it was mean of you to tell me!"
"Mean!" cried Harry indignantly. "Why, it was very generous! I might easily have pleased you very much more by saying I broke it off quite of my own accord."
"That wasn't why you told me. You wanted me to laugh at Romer and think him ridiculous."
"I don't at all. I was in the ridiculous position. Be a woman of the world, Val. Don't talk bosh! We shall soon forget it happened."
"I shall never forget," she answered. "And things can't go on as they were, because I think he's behaved magnificently, because I think he's heroic. And if I didn't appreciate the way he spared me I should be.... Why, don't you realise what it must have been for him, Harry, to hear every word we said? And yet he didn't try to make me suffer for it!"
"He complained that I made you cry!" said Harry with a ghost of a smile.
"Look here, Harry, it's no good. I see I was right about Romer from the first. I married him because I thought there was something remarkable—something finer than other people about him. And I was right."