'I'm so glad that Dick and Julia are happily married. They're very much in love with one another.'
'I should have thought love was the worst possible foundation for marriage,' he answered. 'Love creates illusions, and marriage destroys them. True lovers should never marry.'
Again silence fell upon them, and again Lucy broke it.
'You're going away to-morrow?'
'I am.'
She looked at him, but he would not meet her eyes. He went over to the window and looked out upon the busy street.
'Are you very glad to go?'
'You can't think what a joy it is to look upon London for the last time. I long for the infinite surface of the clean and comfortable sea.'
Lucy gave a stifled sob. Alec started a little, but he did not move. He still looked down upon the stream of cabs and 'buses, lit by the misty autumn sun.
'Is there no one you regret to leave, Alec?'