"If I can just avoid out-and-out lying," he told himself, "I can take my medicine. But if I have to lie—!"
He knew the full bitterness of his medicine when he went to see Lily...
He went the very next day, after office hours... There had been a temptation to postpone the taking of the medicine, because it had been difficult to escape from Eleanor. The well-ordered household at Green Hill had fired her with an impulse to try housekeeping again, and she wanted to urge the idea upon Maurice:
"We would be so much more comfortable; and I could have little Bingo!"
"We can't afford it," he said. (Oh, how many things he wouldn't be able to afford, now!)
"It wouldn't cost much more. I'll come down to the office this afternoon and walk home with you, and tell you what I've thought out about it."
Maurice said he had to—to go and see an apartment house at five.
"That's no matter! I'll meet you and walk along with you."
"I have several other places to go."
That hurt her. "If you don't want me—"