Her lips quivered. "I knew that—you'd say that. I am glad—you—said it."
He turned away. "If you knew how hard it is for me to say it."
She laid her little hand on his arm.
"If you only won't be angry with me."
He turned back to her. "I am not angry," he said, "only I have been—all sorts of a fool."
She sank down hopelessly on a broken stone bench, backed by evergreen trees. "You haven't been a fool," she said. "I should have told you. But I couldn't. Diana wouldn't let me."
"What did Diana have to do with it?"
"She said that Anthony's friends ought to know me before the engagement was announced."
"So you and she have talked it over, and Sophie, I suppose—and how many others?" His laugh was not good to hear.