Lawrence was surprised.
"It makes me think of that other time when you were kind—I remember when Martin died ... oh, I can't help wishing sometimes he was dead—that he'd died right at the start—or I had."
"My dear ..."
"Oh, when Martin died, at least it was finished; but this time it ain't finished—it's like something broken." She clasped her hands, in their brown kid gloves, against her heart.
"Won't you tell me what's happened? This isn't Martin you're talking about?"
"No. But I thought he was like Martin—that's what made me take to him at the start. I looked up and I saw him, and I said to myself 'That's Martin'—it gave me quite a jump."
The Waterloo train was in the station and the people on the platform surged towards it, leaving Lawrence and Joanna stranded on their seat. Lawrence looked at the train for a minute, then shook his head, as if in answer to some question he had asked himself.
"Look here, Jo," he said, "won't you tell me what's happened? I can't quite understand you as it is. Don't tell me anything you'd rather not."
Joanna sat upright and swallowed violently.
"It's like this," she said. "I've just broken off my engagement to marry—maybe you didn't know I was engaged to be married?"