t is the better I shall
like it."

"I don't know. It was bad enough in all conscience for you and Colin.
It'll be worse for us if we're found out. Of course we shan't be found
out, but there's always a risk. And it would be worse for you than for
me, Anne."

"I don't care. I want it to be. Besides, it won't. It'll be far worse
for you because of Maisie. That's the only thing that makes it wrong."

"Don't think about that, darling."

"I don't. If it's wrong, it's wrong. I don't care how wrong it is if it
makes you happy. And if God's going to punish either of us I hope it'll
be me."

"God? The God doesn't exist who could punish _you_."

"I don't care if he does punish me so long as you're let off."

She came over to him and slid to the floor and crouched beside him and
laid her head against his knees. She clasped his knees tight with her
arms.

"I don't want you to be hurt," she said. "I can't bear you to be hurt.
But what can I do?"

"Stay like that. Close. Don't go."

She stayed, pressing her face down tighter, rubbing her cheek against
his rough tweed. He put his arm round her shoulder, holding her there;
his fingers stroked, stroked the back of her neck, pushed up through the
fine roots of her hair, giving her the caress she loved. Her nerves
thrilled with a sudden secret bliss.

"Jerrold, it's heaven when you touch me."

"I know. It's hell for me when I don't."

"I didn't know. I didn't know. If only I'd known."

"We know now."

There was a long silence. Now and again she felt him stirring uneasily.
Once he sighed and her heart tightened. At last he bent over her and
lifted her up and set her on his knee. She lay back gathered in his
arms, with her head on his breast, satisfied, like a child.

"Jerrold, do you remember how you used to hold me to keep me from
falling in the goldfish pond?"

"Yes."

"I've loved you ever since then."

"Do you remember how I kissed you when I went to school?"

"Yes."

"And the night that Nicky died?"

"Yes."

"I've been sleeping in that room, because it was yours."

"Have you? Did you love me _then_, that night?"

"Yes. But I didn't know I did. And then Father's death came and stopped
it."

"I know. I know."

"Anne, what a brute I was to you. Can you ever forgive me?"

"I forgave you long ago."

"Talk of punishments--"

"Don't talk of punishments."

Presently they left off talking, and he kissed her. He kissed her again
and again, with light