(Yet all the time he was becoming more heavily, acutely aware of Ruth's physical presence.)
"Poor Jack Stannard is only showing off, that's all. He despises younger men, and wants to show them up as ignorant louts. And he's rather tremendous, you know. And that grave bearing of his, shaking hands just as though I were made of fragile china, is so touching that sometimes I—" She paused. "Do you know why he arranged this whole expedition?"
Martin hesitated. "Well! I suppose because he thought you were, you know, more interested in me than you were." ' "So you've guessed that," Ruth mocked softly.
(They were both breathing with a little more quickened beat)
"I'd have known it, of course, if there hadn't been a kind of spell on my brain. In any case, since it happens to be wrong…
"Who says it's wrong?" asked Ruth coolly, and turned round. "Suppose you kiss me."
Now here, it may be submitted, what is any man to do under such circumstances? Besides, human nature is human nature: to put the matter politely. Furthermore, ordinary social behaviour… Anyway, he did not treat her like fragile china.
Suddenly Ruth struggled and pushed herself away.
This doesn't mean anything," she said. After waiting a while, she repeated in a calmer tone: This doesn't mean any’ thing."
The thought of Jenny, even in Martin's present state of mind, partly sobered him. "I know!" He got his breath back.