“Ah, that I didn’t know, of course,” he said.
There was another pause, and the girl turned her head quickly so that even her profile was hidden from him. Eric saw the flash of a handkerchief and heard a sob half-choked down. Throwing away his cigarette, he seated himself on the arm of the chair and laid his hand on her shoulder. Nearly three years ago Barbara had swept into that room like a whirlwind and collapsed as suddenly. Since then he ought to have learned the price of sympathy....
“Wouldn’t it help you to tell me all about it?,” he asked her gently.
Ivy dabbed at her eyes and felt for his hand. Then she turned and pressed herself against him until he could feel the fluttering of her heart.
“That’s why I told you I was desperate,” she gulped, burying a tear-stained face of misery on his shoulder. “That’s why I told you at the opera that I couldn’t allow myself to think of things... We met on the way back from America; we liked each other, we were always meeting. When life at home became more than I could stand, he helped me... But I told you all about that... It was glorious at first, I’d never been in love, I felt I’d never been happy before. I used to dine with him almost every night and go on to a dance. He’s a beautiful dancer, and I adore dancing. I seemed to belong to him... When we didn’t do that, we used to go to a theatre, or he’d just come and talk to me in my rooms, or I’d go and talk to him—”
“Didn’t you feel that was rather a risk?”
Either the girl did not hear him or she deliberately ignored the interruption.
“I didn’t think any one could be so happy,” she went on. “I remember thinking how wrong you were... Some days weren’t as perfect as others, of course. I suppose I’m very jealous, but I loved him so much that I simply hated to see him speak to another woman; I never wanted to speak to another man, so it wasn’t fair... We’d had a row that night when I met you after the theatre. A woman—she was rude to me, deliberately; he said he’d known her for years, but that didn’t make any difference or give her the right... I never said anything to her, but I could see she hated me; and he just laughed at us both and seemed to enjoy it. I refused to have anything to do with him for ten days after that. Then he apologized and said the woman had once been in love with him and he didn’t want a scene in public... Then we became engaged.”
She threw out the words so abruptly that Eric was conscious of disproportion, even of omission.
“What happened?,” he asked.