"I don't want—to be bored—with it—either." She spoke very slowly. "If you wanted to leave me for Dora Nicholson, I should be a fool to try and keep you, shouldn't I?"
"Well—you're not a fool."
"You're not a fool either, Wilfrid."
"If I am I take some pains to conceal it."
"If a woman wanted to leave you for another man, would you try and keep her?"
He looked at her attentively. "It depends on the woman, and on some other things besides. For instance, if I were married to her, I might make a considerable effort, not to keep her, but—to keep up appearances."
"And if—you were not married to her?"
"There again it would depend on the woman. I might take it that she'd left me already."
"Yes, but if you knew she wasn't that sort—if you knew she'd always been straight with you?"
"Well, then perhaps I might take the trouble to find out whether there really was another man. Or I might have reason to suppose she was only trying it on. In which case I should say to her 'My dear Kitty, you're a very clever woman and it's a brilliant idea you've got. But it's been tried before and it won't work. You can't draw me that way.'"