Carteret. I think she had a case, mind you! Going out for a joy ride with her son at that time of night in her car!
Rachel. Oh, the rapture of that moment when you stood up for me, and then, when you found out you had known my dad!
Carteret. Rather a good moment, that—a trump card, wasn't it?
Rachel. I can hear you saying it now, 'Tom Farrar, my old shipmate.' Oh, the relief of it! the relief!
Carteret [smiling]. Poor little girl!
Rachel [recovering herself]. But we needn't think about it; and you were there, and you brought me back with you, and then, as they say in the fairy tales, we married and lived happily ever after.
Carteret. Except that I had to go off to the Cape directly afterwards. Good Lord! How I used to laugh at the other men on board, when they were wanting to go ashore to see their wives and babies, or to come back home when they were aboard. I used to think what fools they were; but they weren't. I was the fool all right. And now I know better—I have done just the same. And after getting that splendid ship I was so proud of, and after always saying that I would not take a shore-going job for the world, I jumped at this job at the Admiralty just to be near you and Mary, and, oh, I am so glad I did.
Rachel [caressingly]. We are awfully happy, aren't we?
Carteret. Awfully.
Rachel [musingly]. Mary—Mary—[she says the name twice]. How I love that child! I love her absurdly, fiercely. If I tried to love her more I couldn't. I have sometimes a wild sense of the joy of having her that makes me afraid of fate…. [She speaks on in a more ordinary tone]. Men aren't like that, I daresay.