“Then you won’t go there?”
“Of course I must go. I have the villa. I am going there next week.”
“If you go, then I shall go. But I’ll leave when Jimmy comes, as you are so fussed about him.”
She could scarcely believe that it was Dion who was speaking to her. Often she had heard him speak violently, irritably, even cruelly and rudely. But there was a sort of ghastly softness in his voice. His hand still held hers, but its grasp had relaxed. In his touch, as in his voice, there was a softness which disquieted her.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you come to Buyukderer this summer,” she said. “Once did not matter. But if you came again my reputation would suffer.”
“Then I’ll stay at some other place on the Bosporus and come over.”
“That would be just as bad.”
“Do you seriously mean that we are to be entirely separated during the whole of this summer?”
“I must be careful of my reputation now Jimmy’s growing up. The Bosporus is the home of malicious gossip.”
“Do answer my question. Do you mean that we are to be separated during the summer?”