“We do. Love is one thing and friendship quite another. Because I’m younger than you.... I’ve got imagination.... I know what I am talking about. Mr. Capes, do you think... do you think I don’t know the meaning of love?”
Part 4
Capes made no answer for a time.
“My mind is full of confused stuff,” he said at length. “I’ve been thinking—all the afternoon. Oh, and weeks and months of thought and feeling there are bottled up too.... I feel a mixture of beast and uncle. I feel like a fraudulent trustee. Every rule is against me—Why did I let you begin this? I might have told—”
“I don’t see that you could help—”
“I might have helped—”
“You couldn’t.”
“I ought to have—all the same.
“I wonder,” he said, and went off at a tangent. “You know about my scandalous past?”
“Very little. It doesn’t seem to matter. Does it?”