“Did she tell you that, too?” he asked.
“I chose to infer it.”
“You’re a desirable friend for a girl to have, if you choose to infer that sort of thing about her... Lane, the artistic temperament runs away with you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and dress. But, any time you think of anything else you’d like to ask me, don’t hesitate to drop in. I’m nearly always at home this time of day and I can give you a cocktail, if you’ll tell me how to get hold of any gin. Good-bye.”
CHAPTER SIX
THE REWARD OF SYMPATHY
“And... there came down a certain priest that way: and... he passed by on the other side.
“And likewise a Levite...”
S. Luke: 10. 31-2.
Eric drove to Ryder Street with the knowledge that he had been beaten; and for the first time, now that it was too late to be of any use, he explored his motives in going. An ingrained conventional sense of fitness told him that, when a man had behaved as Gaymer had done, he must marry his victim as a matter of honour; more rational modern teaching objected that a man would commit two crimes instead of one if he consented to marry a woman whom he did not love. Eric felt he must really have assumed that Gaymer loved Ivy but that he was too inconsiderate to treat her kindly; he had himself gone to Buckingham Gate to demand an explanation rather than to force on the marriage.