“And now? What now?”
“Now that you know, Olivia, you know that it’s not all greed, any more than it is all love. You’ve seen a man’s weakness. His sin, even. You’ve seen the part of him he hid from you. We all have a skeleton to hide.”
“I’m not to be moved by sophistry, Charles.”
“Ship life tries the nerves, Olivia.”
“Are you pleading for him now, Charles?”
“Olivia, don’t let me hurt you by discussing your husband. But did you ever realize him?”
“Yes. I suppose I did.”
“He was unlike any man you had ever seen. Ah. Don’t answer. I know you too well, Olivia. I know all this.”
“It seems a long time ago,” she said coldly. She was pulling a little arnotto rose to pieces, petal by petal, crushing the petals till her finger-tips were stained and scented.
“You never realized him, Olivia. I never realized him. I did not know in Salcombe that day that he is a man with a frightful physical energy. On shore he could work it off. It’s not easy to say this. But at sea, in a ship, shut up here, it turned inward. Do you see, Olivia?”