“You’ve got to understand,” he said roughly. His hatred of being compelled to hurt her made him almost brutal. “I—everything is changed between us, June.” He stopped, not knowing how to go on.
“Changed? How, Dan?” Her voice sharpened with apprehension. “Do you mean—that you don’t—care any longer?”
“Yes. It’s that. It’s Magda—Oh, good God! Can’t you understand?”
“You love Miss Vallincourt?” June spoke in carefully measured accents. She felt that if she did not speak very quietly indeed she should scream. She wanted to laugh, too. It sounded so absurd to be asking her husband if he loved Miss Vallincourt!
Dan’s eyes met her own.
“Yes,” he said. “I love her.” He paused a moment, then added: “I asked her to go away with me.”
June stared at him dumbly. The whole thing seemed unreal. She could not feel as though what Dan was saying had any relation to herself, any bearing on their life together. At last:
“Why didn’t you go, then?” she heard herself say—at least, she supposed she must be saying it, although the voice didn’t sound a bit like her own.
Dan turned on her with sudden savagery. His nerves were raw.
“You speak as though you were disappointed,” he said roughly.