He got up and took Veronica away.
He was lying at her feet now on the grass in the far corner of the lawn under the terrace.
"Why do you go to them?" he said.
"Because they want me."
"You mustn't go when they want you. You mustn't let them get hold of you."
"They don't get hold of me--nothing gets hold of me. I want to help them. They say it does them good to have me with them."
"I should think it did do them good! They feed on you, Ronny. I can see it by the way they look at you. You'll die of them if you don't give it up."
"Give what up?"
"Your game of keeping them going. That is your game, isn't it? Everybody's saying how wonderful Grannie is. They mean she ought to have been dead years ago.
"They were all old, horribly old and done for, ages ago. I can remember them. But they know that if they can get a young virgin sacrificed to them they'll go on. You're the young virgin. You're making them go on."