"I suppose," said Queenie, with furious calm, "you want me to divorce
him?"
"Divorce him? Why on earth should you? Just because I looked after him
at night? I _had_ to. There wasn't anybody else. And he was afraid to
sleep alone. He is still. But he's all right as long as he knows I'm
there."
"You expect me to believe that's all there is in it?"
"No, I don't, considering what your mind's like."
"Oh yes, when people do dirty things it's always other people's dirty
minds. Do you imagine I'm a fool, Anne?"
"You're an awful fool if you think Colin's my lover."
"I think it, and I say it."
"If you think it you're a fool. If you say it you're a liar. A damned
liar."
"And is Colin's mother a liar, too?"
"Yes, but not a damned one. It would serve you jolly well right,
Queenie, if he _was_ my lover, after the way you left him to me."
"I didn't leave him to you. I left him to his mother."
"Anyhow, you left him."
"I couldn't help it. _You_ were not wanted at the front and I was. I
couldn't leave hundreds of wounded soldiers just for Colin."
"_I_ had to. He was in an awful state. I've looked after him day and
night; I've got him almost well now, and I think the least you can do is
to keep quiet and let him alone."
"I shall do nothing of the sort. I shall divorce him as soon as the
war's over."
"It isn't over yet. And I don't advise you to try. No decent barrister
would touch your case, it's so rotten."
"Not half so rotten as you'll look when it's in all the papers."
"You can't frighten me that way."
"Can't I? I suppose you'll say you were looking, poor darling, if you do
bring your silly old action. Only please don't do it till he's quite
well, or he'll be ill again...I think that's tea going in. Will you go
down?"
They went down. Tea was laid in the big bare hall. The small round oak
table brought them close together. Anne waited on Queenie with every
appearance of polite attention. Queenie ate and drank in long, fierce
silences; for her hunger was even more imperious than her pride.
"I don't _want_ to eat your food," she said at last. "I'm only doing it
because I'm starving. I dined with Colin's mother last night. It was the
first dinner I've eaten since I went to the war."
"You needn't feel unhappy about it," said Anne. "It's Eliot's house and
Jerrold's food. How's Cutler?"
"Much the same as when you saw him." Queenie answered quietly, but her
face was red.
"And that Johnnie--what was his name?--who took my place?"