“Nonsense” she replied. Then, with a little heat: “But you do continue to try so hard to justify yourself, as if you felt you needed justification.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I tell you—a little thing like this—it remains tied tight round something inside me, reminding me for hours—well, what everybody else’s opinion of me is.”
Helena laughed rather plaintively.
“I thought you were so sure we were right,” she said.
He winced again.
“In myself I am. But in the eyes of the world—”
“If you feel so in yourself, is not that enough?” she said brutally.
He hung his head, and slowly turned his serviette-ring.
“What is myself?” he asked.