"My God!" said I, "can't you talk seriously about a matter like this? You know the truth now—you know just how much of a fool I've been. Why go on talking about my being in love with Clarissa? It's ridiculous. I'm not a romantic little boy. You must know how useless it would be for me to let myself drift into an affection for any woman. Women take no violent fancies for me. I don't blame 'em. So for Heaven's sake, when I go and make a fool of myself on a woman's behalf, don't imagine that I'm in love with her. What did you do? When you found everything as you say you'd expected it—what did you do?"
She sat down on the seat beneath the nut trees and she motioned to me to sit beside her.
"I gave her my advice," said she.
"What was that?"
"I believed that every word you'd said about him was true."
"More than true," said I.
"So I told her what to do. I told her to write to him."
"Saying what?"
"Saying that she could not wait for him any longer; that if he did not come and marry her at once, she would go straight back to Dominica."
"My God!" said I, "and he's come!"