He pressed the cheque into her hands, and with a playful show of force shut her fingers upon it.
"I know this has been a—a——" He looked round the room, seeming to seek an apt form of expression. "This has been an uncomfortable job for you, but you really mustn't look at it like that, you know."
"If you give it me, I must take it. I daren't accept the responsibility of refusing it."
He was quite eager to comfort her.
"You're doing quite right. You were perfectly square with me; now you're being perfectly square with John."
Perfectly square with John! Christine's lips curved in a smile of scorn. But—well, sometimes one loses the right or the power to be perfectly square.
"And I'm downright glad to help—downright glad you came to me."
"I only came because I couldn't help it."
"Then I'm downright glad you couldn't help it."
She had loved this unalterable good-temper of his, and admired the tactful way he had of humouring women. If they wouldn't have it in one way, he had always been quite ready to offer it to them in the other, so long as they took it in the end; and this they generally did. She rose to her feet, holding the cheque in her hand.