He stood stock still. His immobility was strangely terrifying.
"I don't know whether you'll understand what I mean. That sort of thing doesn't mean very much to a woman when it's over. I think women have never quite understood the attitude that men take up." She spoke abruptly, in a voice she would hardly have recognised as her own. "You know what Charlie was and you knew what he'd do. Well, you were quite right. He's a worthless creature. I suppose I shouldn't have been taken in by him if I hadn't been as worthless as he. I don't ask you to forgive me. I don't ask you to love me as you used to love me. But couldn't we be friends? With all these people dying in thousands round us, and with those nuns in their convent . . ."
"What have they got to do with it?" he interrupted.
"I can't quite explain. I had such a singular feeling when I went there to-day. It all seems to mean so much. It's all so terrible and their self-sacrifice is so wonderful; I can't help feeling it's absurd and disproportionate, if you understand what I mean, to distress yourself because a foolish woman has been unfaithful to you. I'm much too worthless and insignificant for you to give me a thought."
He did not answer, but he did not move away; he seemed to be waiting for her to continue.
"Mr. Waddington and the nuns have told me such wonderful things about you. I'm very proud of you, Walter."
"You used not to be; you used to feel contempt for me. Don't you still?"
"Don't you know that I'm afraid of you?"
Again he was silent.
"I don't understand you," he said at last. "I don't know what it is you want."