"I was a fool. Only I thought he was different."
"Personally, I didn't. We knew his first wife walked out on him, and she must have had some reason."
"Oh, she ran off with another man. It wasn't anything to do with Arthur's temper; or, anyway, if it was, I couldn't have guessed that. Only I was too young. I ought never to have been allowed to marry him. If mother had had any sense by the way, where is mother? I haven't heard from her for ages."
Dinah selected a cigarette from her case and lit it. "At home, trying a new treatment."
"Oh, lord!" sighed Fay, momentarily diverted. "I thought she'd taken up Christian Science?"
"It didn't last. She read a bit in some evening paper about proper dieting, and she's gone all lettucey. Nuts, too. That's why I'm here. There's a filthy beverage you drink for breakfast instead of coffee. I thought not, so I cleared out."
"Well, I do hope she won't make herself ill," said Fay.
"Not she. By the time I get back she'll have got religion, or something, and we shall have grace before meals, but not before lettuces, so to speak. As for her having sense enough to stop you marrying Arthur — well, pull yourself together, Fay!"
Fay smiled rather wanly. "I know. Now, say I made my bed and must lie on it."
"I shouldn't think anyone could possibly lie on any bed you ever made, ducky. Cut loose." "Cut loose?"