“Are you—are you leaving him?”
Leila nodded:
“That's very brave, and wonderful.”
“Oh! no. Needs must when the devil drives—that's all. I don't give up happiness of my own accord. That's not within a hundred miles of the truth. What I shall become, I don't know, but nothing better, you may be sure. I give up because I can't keep, and you know why. Where is Noel?”
“Down at the sea, with George and Gratian.”
He was looking at her in wonder; and the pained, puzzled expression on his face angered her.
“I see the house is to let. Who'd have thought a child like that could root up two fossils like us? Never mind, Edward, there's the same blood in us. We'll keep our ends up in our own ways. Where are you going?”
“They'll give me a chaplaincy in the East, I think.”
For a wild moment Leila thought: 'Shall I offer to go with him—the two lost dogs together?'
“What would have happened, Edward, if you had proposed to me that May week, when we were—a little bit in love? Which would it have been, worst for, you or me?”