"Some of the blame," he said, "should you be old-fashioned enough to think in terms of blame and praise, must be reserved for Africa.
To understand the problem of Norah's ... fall, bid for self-expression, or whatever your brand of morality calls it, apply my formula for gauging what Africa will make of a man:—'Lowest Common Failing cubed' if you remember. Our first task is the ever congenial one of spotting the L.C.F., the ruling weakness. Poor Norah, the field is big enough. So big, selection is difficult; for, outside courage and honesty, she had few noteworthy virtues.
Pride, hot temper—neither was missing, but neither ruled her. Irreverence—a full share, but nothing notable for the century. A free tongue, a gambler's heart—I feel we are 'warmer.' Rebelliousness, generosity—which of these two failings to choose?
From her cradle she had been a rebel. I have mentioned a few instances—her expulsion from the Red Cross, her defiance of the rules of war when she rescued Archie, and of the rules of common sense when she married him, her preference of Africa to Edinburgh, and so on. To Norah a custom established, a practice accepted, dared her to its disregard or breach. The temptation to break with her sex's tradition of, at any rate overt, chastity must have been overwhelming, while to the itch to break through rules, she could only oppose fidelity to her promise.
Generosity, my second choice, had ever made it hard for her to say 'no' or to withhold what lay in her power to give. As a child she had lavished her pennies on the utterly undeserving poor. As a girl, disregarding the cost, she had always been at the call of any friend, or stranger for that matter, in a difficulty. And now she could by an act, not in itself uncomfortable, grant Dick a boon he craved, whose refusal he hinted would make him desperate ... while Archie, it seemed ... did not care.
So, if you wish, you may charge her ultimate surrender to her double weakness exploited by Africa; if you prefer, to her single strength betrayed by Archie's silence, that loyalty to her bond long and savagely honoured.
As an English writer you may be trusted not to impute her fall to mere weakness of the flesh. You would never admit that a woman of your nation and class would take a lover from so disinterested a motive. Adultery on grounds of spite, altruism, jealousy, poverty, revenge, avarice, or even absence of mind is admissible. From passion, unthinkable.
Well, the decisive Wednesday came without sign or rumour of Archie.
On Saturday night Dick's lantern a second time came swinging across the river."