“You can help me unpack while you disapprove. That lazy little cat Winnie has gone off to spend the day with Camellia.”
“Winnie? She’s still with you?”
“My dear, what was I to do with her? I couldn’t send her home again just because of a whim of mine. It wouldn’t be fair. She isn’t happy at home——”
Antonia sat down helplessly. “A year ago Deb gets turned out of home, plus an income. Now you elope, plus Winifred Potter. You’re a pair to make any friend of yours hysterical....”
“A little more, and I’d have despatched Winifred labelled right-side-up as a farewell present to you,” Gillian retorted grimly. “But she’ll do for Theo to flirt with in his lighter moments.”
“Theo’s are mostly lighter moments, aren’t they? Jill, I wouldn’t have minded the sacrifice; I wouldn’t have said a single word ... if he’d been worthy.” She was ice-white with the conviction of his unworthiness.
Gillian said nothing for a minute or two. She still sat bent over the packing-case, one leg on either side of it, wrenching at the wood. Then: “Much need for sacrifice with a man who’s worthy!”
“Then you admit he isn’t?” Antonia sprang up. “Oh, Gillian, if you must try a theory——”
“Theory? Good Lord! Nothing of that sort. It’s just that Theo isn’t big enough or good enough, if you like, to remain faithful and decent and honourable to a woman who’s only his spiritual love. Why pretend?—we all know what Theo is!” she shrugged her thin shoulders and flashed a wide smile up at her friend—“He’s clever—with a sort of malicious destructive cleverness. Otherwise just an amorous gutter-snipe, who can’t resist anything of the other sex—a Zoe in male. His reputation is a joke—I’ve heard scores of people chuckling over the latest Theo Pandos story.”
“You know this—and still——”