"Oh, Christine, aren't you ever going to forgive me?"
Just for a moment a little quiver convulsed her face, but it was gone instantly. She knew by past experience how easily Jimmy could put just that soft note into his voice. She told herself that it was only because he wanted something from her, not that he was really in the very least sorry for what had happened, for the way he had hurt her, for the havoc he had made of her life.
"It isn't a question of forgiveness at all," she said. "I didn't ask you to come here. I didn't want you to come here, I was quite happy without you."
"That is very evident," he said bitterly. The words escaped him before he could stop them. He apologised agitatedly.
"I didn't mean that; it slipped out; I ought not to have said it. I hardly know what I am saying. If you can't ever forgive me, that settles it once and for all, of course; but——"
She interrupted.
"Why have you come here? What do you want?"
The question was direct enough, and in desperation he answered it as directly.
"I have come because my brother will be home next week, and I want to know what I am to tell him."
For the first time she blenched a little. Her eyes sought his with a kind of fear.