“I’m not saying anything against her. She has a perfect right to be herself, but if being herself interferes with me, I have a perfect right to fight for what I want.”
“What do you want?”
“Your friendship.”
“You have it,” replied René, in the tone of one squashing an argument.
“Yes,” said Kilner, “comfortably. You try to make room for me in your little circle of comfort, and, worse still, to use me as a comfort. I can’t stand that. She knows it. That’s why she keeps you away from me.”
René protested:
“She doesn’t.”
“She does. You watch her eyes when she comes in and finds me here.”
René looked up at him uneasily. Kilner pounced on that:
“You are uneasy already. I don’t want to make trouble between you two. You can make quite enough for yourselves, but I mean to dig out of you what I need. I mean to try anyhow until I am satisfied that what I need is not there.”