"I go with them," said Peter. "Well, I can't well stay here, can I. And we may as well stick together—a family party..... You see, I haven't a notion what Hilary will do to live now. I can go into business of sorts. Hilary can't; he'd hate it so. Hilary's not business-like, you know. Nor is Peggy. I couldn't trust them by themselves; they'd tumble into something and get broken. They need my common sense to sustain them."
Leslie said, "What's the matter with your own line of life, that you want to chuck it?"
Peter looked at him in surprise.
"It's chucked me," he said. "Violently—with a smash. You don't suppose anyone will hire me again to buy their things for them? There'll be something of a crab on the Margerison family in future. It's going to be made very public, you know, this business; I gathered that. We shall be—rather notorious, in a very few days."
Leslie said, after a moment, "I've hired you to buy my things for me. Are you going to chuck me?"
And Peter, leaning his forehead on his hand as if tired, returned beneath his breath, "Don't be good to me, please, just now. And you must see I've got to chuck it all—all that side of things. We must do something quite new, Hilary and I. We—we've spoiled this."
After a pause, Leslie said gently, afraid of blundering, "You stick together, you and your brother? You go through it together—all the way?"
Peter answered hopelessly, "All the way. We're in it together, and we must get out together, as best we can," and Leslie accepted that, and asked no further question.