“Counted the cost? But what cost is there? Neither of us loses anything.”
“I risk losing almost everything a woman cares for. I don’t want to dwell upon it. I detest women who indulge in reproaches, or who try to make men value them by pointing out how much they stand to lose by giving themselves. But you are so strange to-night. You have attacked me. I don’t know why.”
“I’ve been walking on the quay and thinking.”
“What about?”
“You!”
“Go on.”
“I’ve been thinking that, as you take in Jimmy and all the people here so easily, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be taking me in too.”
In the dark a feeling was steadily growing within him that his companion was playing with him as he knew she had played with others.
“I’m forced to deceive the people here and my boy. My relation with you obliges me to do that. But nothing forces me to deceive you. I have been sincere with you. Ever since I met you in the street in Pera I’ve been sincere, even blunt. I should think you must have noticed it.”
“I have. In some ways you are blunt, but in many you aren’t.”