"He wanted so awfully to go. But Eliot could have stopped him if it hadn't been for Queenie. She hunted and hounded him out. She told him he was funking. Fancy Colin funking!"
"What's Queenie like?"
"She's like that. She never funks herself, but she wants to make out that everybody else does."
"Do you like Queenie?"
"No. I hate her. I don't mind her hounding him out so much since she went herself; I do mind her leaving him. Do you know, she's never even tried to come and see him."
"Good God! what a beast the woman must be. What on earth made him marry her?"
"He was frightfully in love. An awful sort of love that wore him out and made him wretched. And now he's afraid for his life of her. I believe he's afraid of the war ending because then she'll come back."
"And if she does come back?"
"She may try and take Colin away from me. But she shan't. She can't take him if he doesn't want to go. She left him to me to look after and I mean to stick to him. I won't have him frightened and made all ill again just when I've got him well."
"I'm afraid you've had a very hard time."