"That sounds awfully clever of you, but I'm hanged if I know what you mean."
"I mean, how can you tell that it—the old thing—never would come back?"
It was clever of her. He realised that he had to deal now with a more complete and complex creature than Anne had been.
"How could it?" he asked.
"If she came back—"
"Never. And if it did—"
"Ah, if it did—"
"It couldn't in this case—my case—your case—"
"Her case—" she whispered.
"Her case? She hasn't got one. She simply doesn't exist. She might come back as much as she pleased, and still she wouldn't exist. Is that what you've been afraid of all the time?"