“You and I,” he explained.
“But—but I can’t possibly do anything.”
“ ‘Can’t possibly’ is a phrase I have learned to misunderstand.”
“Really, Mr Beveridge, I mustn’t do anything.”
“Mustn’t is an invariable preface to a sin. Never use it; it’s a temptation in itself.”
“It wouldn’t be right,” she said, with quite a show of firmness.
He looked at her a little curiously. For a moment he almost seemed puzzled. Then he pressed her hand and asked tenderly, “Why not?”
And in a half-audible aside he added, “That’s the correct move, I think.”
“What did you say?” she asked.
“I said, ‘Why not?’ ” he answered, with increasing tenderness.