"When you wanted to turn Mac out and make him commandant."
"Oh, then—I was a jolly fool to be taken in by him. So were you."
She stopped on her way to the door. "I admit he looks everything he isn't. But that only shows what a beastly humbug the man is."
"No. He isn't a humbug. He really likes going out even if he can't stand it when he gets there."
"I've no use for that sort of courage."
"It isn't courage. But it isn't humbug."
"I've no use for your fine distinctions either."
She heard Alice Bartrum's voice calling to Trixie as she went out, "It's jolly decent of her not to go back on him."
The voice went on. "You needn't mind what Trixie says about cold feet. She's said it about everybody. About Sutton and Mac, and all our men, and me."
She thought: What's the good of lying when they all know? Still, there were things they wouldn't know if she kept on lying, things they would never guess.