“There is no need—”
“There is need to make you see clearly why I have every right to take a stand now against—against——”
“Against what?”
“I feel you’re changing. I don’t trust you. You are not to be trusted. Since Jimmy has been here again I feel that you are different.”
“I am obliged to be specially careful now the boy is beginning to grow up. He notices things now he wouldn’t have noticed a year or two ago. And it will get worse from year to year. That isn’t my fault.”
His sunken eyes looked fixedly at her from the midst of the network of wrinkles which disfigured his face.
“Now what are you trying to lead up to?” he said.
“It’s very foolish of you to be always suspicious. Only stupid people are always suspecting others of sharp practise.”
“I’m stupid compared with you, but I’m not so stupid that I haven’t learnt to know you better than other people know you, better, probably, than any one else on earth knows you. It is entirely through you that Jimmy has got to hate me. I’m not going to let you use his hatred of me as a weapon against me. I’ve been wanting to tell you this, but I thought I’d wait till he had gone.”
“Why should I want to use a weapon against you?”