"She's sixteen. You don't imagine Desmond is as young as that, do you? Wait till she's twenty-five and you're twenty-two."
"It wouldn't do poor Desmond much good if I did. I could kill Headley Richards."
"What for?"
"For leaving her."
Vera smiled. "That shows how much you care. You wouldn't have felt like killing him if he'd stuck to her. Why should you marry Headley Richards' mistress and take on his child? It's preposterous."
"It isn't. If the other fellow's a brute it's all the more reason why I shouldn't be. I want to be some use in this rotten world where people are so damnably cruel to each other. And there's that unhappy kiddy. You've forgotten the kiddy."
"Do you mean to say it's Desmond's child you're thinking of?"
"I can't understand any woman not thinking of it," said Nicky.
He looked at her, and she knew that he remembered Veronica.
Then she gave him back his own with interest, for his good.