"Why not?"
"I can't bear it."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shock you."
"I know." She sat for a while with head averted; and presently spoke, sitting so:
"We'll fight it, anyway," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"If you'll let me—"
After a silence she turned and looked at him. He stammered, very red:
"I don't quite know why you speak to me so."
She herself was not entirely clear on that point, either. After all, her business with this man was to use him in the service of her Government."