‘Would they? Would they? You don’t know what revolting ones they are.’
He laughed and said indulgently:
‘It’s no good trying to frighten me.’
‘It’s true,’ she cried. ‘D’you suppose I’m trying to be humble because I think it’s the correct idea?’
He said nothing, and she felt him trying with perplexity to think out the proper method of dealing with her mood. Finally he said:
‘Judy. I’ll tell you what seems to me the only important thing—and that is, that we should be absolutely truthful with each other. Don’t you agree? I think telling the truth is my only principle—besides washing. As long as I know exactly where I am, I can stand anything.’ He drew her to him and turned her face so that his warm kind eyes could look into hers. ‘I’ve always dreamt of finding someone I could tell everything to, and trust absolutely.’
Tell everything to.... O God! Was he going to say: ‘My wife and I must have no secrets from each other’? Was he that sort of fool? He went on:
‘Judith I might as well try to lie to myself as you. And I can’t lie to myself. Why if I were to stop loving you even—if that could be—I’d have to tell you straight out. I couldn’t pretend. I hope you couldn’t either.’
‘No, I couldn’t.’
He went on with a shade of anxiety.