‘Of course I liked you very much,’ he said. ‘I always thought you were extremely attractive.’
‘Attractive!’ She bowed her face in her hands. ‘Yes. I was attractive to you. And so.... That you should have treated me so lightly, Roddy! Oh, did I really, really deserve that?’
He was silent.
‘If you’d warned me, Roddy ... given me some hint. I was so romantic and idealistic about you—you’ve no idea.... I thought you must think of me in the same sort of way I thought about you.... Couldn’t you have warned me?’
He said in a voice choked with exasperation:
‘I did try to shew you, I tell you. I should have thought I’d shewn you often enough. Didn’t I say I was never to be taken seriously?’
She sighed and nodded her head drearily. She was beaten.
‘Yes. Yes, you did. I wouldn’t be warned, I was such a fool. Oh, it’s all my fault. A good sell for me.’
‘Well, I’d better go now,’ he said after a pause.
He took a step or two and then turned back. She still leaned against the wall, and something in her attitude or expression seemed suddenly to move him. He lingered, hesitated. His face shewed a little trouble and confusion.