"I've no business to suppose anything. I don't know. But I'm not going to get him back for you."
Something flitted across her face and shifted the wide gaze of her eyes. Straker went on without remorse.
"You know perfectly well the state he's in, and you know how he got into it."
"Yes. And I know," she said, "what you think of me."
"It's more than I do," said Straker.
She smiled subtly, mysteriously, tolerantly, as it were.
"What did you do it for, Philippa?"
Her smile grew more subtle, more tolerant, more mysterious; it measured him and found him wanting.
"If I told you," she said, "I don't think you'd understand. But I'll try and make you."
She turned with him and they walked slowly toward the house.