Mar. Why not admit it, then?
Peter. Because I daren't. A man who's fallen as I fell deserves no second ehanee. I've been a silly fool, but it won't mend that to be a criminal fool.
Mar. What do you mean by being a criminal fool?
Peter. I might have acted as I meant to act when next I saw you.
Mar. How did you mean to act?
Peter. I meant to ask forgiveness on my knees for all the things I said to you. Up in my room I'd come to see it all, sec what a swine I'd been, how right you were, how much you knew me better than I knew myself. I thought in London that I'd met the worst. I thought my bitterest hour was past. But worst and bitterest of all was when I realised all that I'd done to you, all that that doing made me miss.
Mar. (hardly). Then when I came you didn't do as you intended.
Peter. Margaret, I saw you and I felt ashamed. It's one thing to decide within one's mind to do a thing, but quite another thing to do it in the flesh. I saw you, saw the suffering in your face and knew that I had caused it all. I felt ashamed to speak.
Mar. Ashamed to ask forgiveness? Ashamed to carry out your plan?
Peter. We weren't alone. There were others there.