“Lynette talks of you very often. It is, ‘When will Miss Eve come down to see us?’ ‘Won’t she spend her holidays here?’ ‘Won’t you take me to London, daddy, to see Miss Eve?’
“As for this money that you have returned to me, I have put it aside and added a sum to it for a certain purpose that has taken my fancy. I let you return it to me, because I have some understanding of your pride.
“I am glad, deeply glad, that good luck has come to you. If I can serve you at any time and in any way, you can count on me to the last breath.
“I am a different man, in some respects, from the man I was three months ago. Try to realise that. Try to realise what it suggests.
“If you realise it, will you let me see you now and again, just as a comrade and a friend?
“Say yes or no.
“James Canterton.”
Eve was bemused all day, her eyes looking through her work into infinite distances. She avoided Kate Duveen, whose unsentimental directness would have hurt her, lunched by herself, and walked home alone to Bosnia Road. She sat staring at the fire most of the evening before she wrote to Canterton.
“Your letter has made me both sad and happy, Jim. Don’t feel humbled on my account. The humiliation should be mine, because neither the world nor I could match your magnanimity.
“Sometimes my heart is very hungry for sight of Lynette.