“I should love it, when I’ve been home. Ivy’ll be wondering what’s happened to me. Raney, what would you do in my place, if you felt certain that, by giving a woman up, you’d be sentencing her to utter misery?”
“To begin with, no one can ever be certain of that.”
“Gaymer’s a brute and a cad and a drunkard,” said Eric hotly.
“He’s given up drinking for good. As for the rest, when you see so many estimable men turning into brutes and cads on marriage, it’s not unreasonable to hope that a brute and cad may be converted by marriage into something better. As a matter of fact, Gaymer’s neither. I saw him when, to use his own phrase, he thought you’d jumped his claim; it was the time when the girl’s life was in danger. Gaymer’s very fond of her, too, though he’s English enough to hide it from everybody but a man who has ears even if he’s no eyes... Gaymer’s no fool. He knows that all his nervous organism has gone to pieces in the war, he recognizes that he’s left the rails and that, if he doesn’t pull up, he’ll go downhill with a run. He wants some one to keep him steady; and this girl—the only living creature in the world that he cares for—is the only one who can do it. He’s fighting for her, because she’s his one anchor. He can’t afford to lose her.”
“I can’t afford to lose her.”
“Perhaps you mayn’t. I only want her to have a free choice.”
“Freedom to marry a blackguard? He is a blackguard, Raney, to have taken advantage of a girl’s youth and ignorance. He’s a blackguard right through to the end! He solemnly promised me not to go near her and then bursts in the moment my back’s turned. He’s a libertine, a liar—”
“That’s no objection in a woman’s eyes. Every corespondent is all that and perhaps a good deal more.”
“I’m not going to give her up.”
They turned into Ryder Street and walked up the stairs to Eric’s flat. O’Rane waited in the hall while Eric went into Ivy’s bedroom. She was sitting up, writing on her knees, and, as he came in, she laid down her pencil and handed him the letter. Her eyelids flickered, and he could see that she spoke with an effort.