“Did I succeed?”
“To a certain extent. Won’t you sit down? That’s right.” He took his seat by her side. “I’ve changed my mind now.”
“What d’you think now?”
“I think you wanted to put me off,” said Nicholas. “And I want to know why.”
“You remember what I told you—about my life?”
“Every word.”
“Well, I spoke without thinking, you know. I don’t know why. I’ve never done it before. And suddenly I realised that. . . .”
“Yes?”
Susan hesitated. Then—
“I knew a woman once,” she said, “who was always tied up for money. And she used to come to Aunt Beatrice. She never asked her right out, but she used to tell her the awful plight she was in and say if she couldn’t get someone to lend her two hundred dollars she’ld have to kill herself and—and look volumes. . . . Well, it wasn’t pretty.”