Kitty, accustomed to flattery all her life, had never heard such things said to her before. Blind wrath, driving out fear, arose in her heart: it seemed to choke her, and she felt the blood-vessels in her temples swell and throb. Wounded vanity can make a woman more vindictive than a lioness robbed of her cubs. Kitty’s jaw, always a little too square, protruded with an apish hideousness and her beautiful eyes were black with malice. But she kept her temper in check.
“If a man hasn’t what’s necessary to make a woman love him, it’s his fault, not hers.”
“Evidently.”
His derisive tone increased her irritation. She felt that she could wound him more by maintaining her calm.
“I’m not very well educated and I’m not very clever. I’m just a perfectly ordinary young woman. I like the things that the people like among whom I’ve lived all my life. I like dancing and tennis and theatres and I like the men who play games. It’s quite true that I’ve always been bored by you and by the things you like. They mean nothing to me and I don’t want them to. You dragged me round those interminable galleries in Venice: I should have enjoyed myself much more playing golf at Sandwich.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry if I haven’t been all that you expected me to be. Unfortunately I always found you physically repulsive. You can hardly blame me for that.”
“I don’t.”
Kitty could more easily have coped with the situation if he had raved and stormed. She could have met violence with violence. His self-control was inhuman and she hated him now as she had never hated him before.
“I don’t think you’re a man at all. Why didn’t you break into the room when you knew I was there with Charlie? You might at least have tried to thrash him. Were you afraid?”
But the moment she had said this she flushed, for she was ashamed. He did not answer, but in his eyes she read an icy disdain. The shadow of a smile flickered on his lips.
“It may be that, like a historical character, I am too proud to fight.”
Kitty, unable to think of anything to answer, shrugged her shoulders. For a moment longer he held her in his immobile gaze.
“I think I’ve said all I had to say: if you refuse to come to Mei-tan-fu I shall file my petition.”
“Why won’t you consent to let me divorce you?”
He took his eyes off her at last. He leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette. He smoked it to the end without saying a word. Then, throwing away the butt, he gave a little smile. He looked at her once more.
“If Mrs. Townsend will give me her assurance that she will divorce her husband and if he will give me his written promise to marry you within a week of the two decrees being made absolute, I will do that.”
There was something in the way he spoke which disconcerted her. But her self-respect obliged her to accept his offer in the grand manner.
“That is very generous of you, Walter.”
To her astonishment he burst suddenly into a shout of laughter. She flushed angrily.
“What are you laughing at? I see nothing to laugh at.”
“I beg your pardon. I daresay my sense of humour is peculiar.”
She looked at him, frowning. She would have liked to say something bitter and wounding, but no rejoinder occurred to her. He looked at his watch.
“You had better look sharp if you want to catch Townsend at his office. If you decide to come with me to Mei-tan-fu it would be necessary to start the day after tomorrow.”
“Do you want me to tell him today?”
“They say there is no time like the present.”
Her heart began to beat a little faster. It was not uneasiness that she felt, it was, she didn’t quite know what it was. She wished she could have had a little longer; she would have liked to prepare Charlie. But she had the fullest confidence in him, he loved her as much as she loved him, and it was treacherous even to let the thought cross her mind that he would not welcome the necessity that was forced upon them. She turned to Walter gravely.
“I don’t think you know what love is. You can have no conception how desperately in love Charlie and I are with one another. It really is the only thing that matters and every sacrifice that our love calls for will be as easy as falling off a log.”
He gave a little bow, but said nothing, and his eyes followed her as she walked with measured step from the room.
XXIV
She sent in a little note to Charlie on which she had written: “Please see me. It is urgent.” A Chinese boy asked her to wait and brought the answer that Mr. Townsend would see her in five minutes. She was unaccountably nervous. When at last she was ushered into his room Charlie came forward to shake hands with her, but the moment the boy, having closed the door, left them alone he dropped the affable formality of his manner.
“I say, my dear, you really mustn’t come here in working hours. I’ve got an awful lot to do and we don’t want to give people a chance to gossip.”
She gave him a long look with those beautiful eyes of hers and tried to smile, but her lips were stiff and she could not.
“I wouldn’t have come unless it was necessary.”
He smiled and took her arm.
“Well, since you’re here come and sit down.”
It was a long bare room,
