They were, both of them, young enough to see life as something that would inevitably, in a short time, condemn them both to years of sterile monotony. Rachel indeed felt that she was already caught....
They must, both of them, therefore, make the best of their time.
"I was so afraid," he repeated again, "lest something should have stopped you."
"I would have asked you to come to us, only I'm afraid that my husband still——"
"Oh! I quite understand."
"It's natural—Roddy's like that. If he wants to do a thing he doesn't care for anybody and just does it. But if nothing makes him especially want to do it, then he just takes other people's opinions. Now he might ask you suddenly to come and see us—simply because he took it into his head. Then nobody could stop him.... He's very obstinate."
She was rather surprised at herself for talking about Roddy. She had a curious feeling about him as though she were going on a journey and had just said good-bye to him and had a rather desolate choke in her throat because she wouldn't see him again for so long.
"Oh! but I'm glad you've come! If you knew the times and times when I've imagined this meeting—thought about it, pictured——"
She saw that his hand was trembling on the window-ledge—
"I oughtn't to have come, perhaps—But I don't know. I've felt so indignant at the way that grandmother is treating you. I wanted to show you that I was indignant...."