"Oh, Jerrold—does it hurt as much as that?"
"You know how it hurts."
"I don't want you to be hurt——But—darling—if you care for me like that how could you marry Maisie?"
"Because I cared for you. Because I was so mad about you that nothing mattered. I thought I might as well marry her as not."
"But if you didn't care for her?"
"I did. I do, in a way. Maisie's awfully sweet. Besides, it wasn't that. You see, I was going out to France, and I thought I was bound to be killed. Nobody could go on having the luck I'd had. I wanted to be killed."
"So you were sure it would happen. You always thought things would happen if you wanted them."
"I was absolutely sure. I was never more sold in my life than when it didn't. Even then I thought it would be all right till Eliot told me. Then I knew that if I hadn't been in such a damned hurry I might have married you."
"Poor Maisie."
"Poor Maisie. But she doesn't know. And if she did I don't think she'd mind much. I married her because I thought she cared about me—and because I thought I'd be killed before I could come back to her—But she doesn't care a damn. So you needn't bother about Maisie. And you won't go away again?"