Six.
“Well, and what did you say?”
“I should tell you she went down on her knees. What should you have said, eh, my boy? What could I say? They’ve got you when they put it that way. Especially a woman like she is! I tell you she was simply terrific. I tell you I wouldn’t go through it again—not for something.”
Edwin responsively shook.
“I just threw up the sponge and came. I told Huskisson a thundering lie, to save my face, and away I came, and I’ve been with her ever since. Dashed if I haven’t!”
“Who’s Huskisson?”
“My partner. If anybody had told me beforehand that I should do such a thing I should have laughed. Of course, if you look at it calmly, it’s preposterous. Preposterous—there’s no other word—from my point of view. But when they begin to put it the way she put it—well, you’ve got to decide quick whether you’ll be sensible and a brute, or whether you’ll sacrifice yourself and be a damned fool... What good am I here? No more good than anybody else. Supposing there is danger? Well, there may be. But I’ve left twenty or thirty influenza cases at Ealing. Every influenza case is dangerous, if it comes to that.”
“Exactly,” breathed Edwin.
“I wouldn’t have done it for any other woman,” Charlie recommenced. “Not much!”
“Then why did you do it for her?”