And Rear-Admiral Billy, for the good of his soul, committed the double perjury: "The only thing I know, me dear, is that my damn fool of a son made up his mind to divorce you nearly a fortnight ago, and that I've been trying to get Sir Peter to let the pair of you meet ever since. Come on, now, don't be obstinate."
Almost forced up the stone stairs by the renewed grip on her arm, Aliette was aware, dimly, of David Patterson's astonished countenance, of the admiral swinging past David Patterson, of a chair against which she leaned, of an opening door and a quick inaudible colloquy. Then the admiral came back and said to her: "In we go."
Automatically in she went.
Hector stood, motionless, behind his littered desk. She saw him through a glass, a glass of silence, not as the man she had feared and hated, but as a stranger whose eyes were gentle, whose shoulders were bowed, a complete stranger who proffered no hand. The glass of silence slid away; and the stranger spoke to her.
"Won't you sit down?"
Exhausted, she obeyed. The stranger turned to Hector's father, and said, pleadingly: "You'll leave us alone for five minutes, won't you, sir?"
The admiral went out without a word.
"I wanted to see you." The stranger, still on his feet, laughed--a pitiful little laugh, high in the throat. And suddenly she knew him for her legal owner.
"Why did you want to see me?" Could this be the man who had tortured her so long; this broken, stammering creature whose eyes seemed afraid to look into her eyes?
"I don't quite know. Shall we say that I just--just wanted to see you? You mustn't stay more than five minutes, you know. It might--it might invalidate the proceedings--the divorce proceedings. They're rather technical. You see, dear,"--the word came clumsily from between the thin lips--"as things have turned out, I'm afraid--I'm afraid that I shall have to divorce you. I've been trying to arrange things the other way. But it can't be done. Too many people know. There's the king's proctor, you see. But that wasn't why I wanted to talk to you."