“Yes. And I might add that you’ve spoilt me for all other women. If one came to me now without blemish, straight from the right hand of the Creator, I should expect to find treachery or ingratitude... Will you please go back to your room?”
He was thankful that he had stopped without saying more. In her craving for new sensations, Barbara had some perverted strain which made her enjoy being scourged by the tongue of a man who loved her; and in another moment he would have said something which would enable her to put him in the wrong; and anything that he said gave her an excuse for staying....
“I’ve never tried to defend myself, Eric. You were right... You were always right. Isn’t there room in life for mistakes?”
“There’s sometimes no room to repair them.”
“You’re still thinking of George?”
“It’s time one of us did, Lady Barbara... I try to treat other men’s wives as I should expect other men to treat mine.”
He reached for his dressing-gown and slipped his arms into the sleeves. When it was too late, he saw that for a moment he was putting himself at her mercy; in that moment she sprang forward and pinioned him:
“Eric!”
“Will you kindly let go and will you kindly leave my room?”
“Eric, you’re going to marry that child! You must be mad! You’ll be as miserable as I am... If you do that, it will be too late... Eric, don’t struggle, you’re hurting me... Listen! I’ve told you it was a mistake, but it’s not too late to put it right. We were made for each other. You wouldn’t be blamed, and I—I should glory in it... Listen! You shall listen! The other day I was at a party, and a man I don’t know said, ‘That woman looks as if she’d been through Hell.’ They’ll say of us that we’re in Heaven. They’ll try to attack us—and they won’t be able to. We shall be in the clouds, we shall be walking on air. People who see us will go away hungry and envious. Eric, you remember what it was like before that awful parting! I lived for you, and you lived for me. Everything we did and thought... Whenever we were ill or unhappy... There’s never been a love like ours; and, if I didn’t see it, I see it now. God punished me to shew me what I was throwing away... You know what this last year has been, Eric; if you threw away your chance of happiness—Ah, you’re hurting me!”