“Well, never mind, then, darling. I’ll go alone.”
Still she did not speak. After a moment he rose to go. He took her cold hands in his, and would have kissed her, but she pushed him back, still wordless. So for a moment they stood, silent and strange and perplexed in the blurred fog-bound room, hands locked in hands.
Then Molly spoke, steady-voiced at last.
“I want to say something, Eddy. I must, please.”
“Do, sweetheart.”
She looked at him, as if puzzled by herself and him and the world, frowning a little, childishly.
“We can’t go on, Eddy. I ... I can’t go on.”
Cold stillness fell over him like a pall. The fog-shadows huddled up closer round them.
“What do you mean, Molly?”
“Just that. I can’t do it.... We mustn’t be engaged any more.”