y.

And then Vera began to say things about Desmond.

"It's absurd of you," she said, "to treat her as if she was an innocent
child. She isn't a child, and she isn't innocent. She knew perfectly
well what she was about. There's nothing she doesn't know. She meant it
to happen, and she made it happen. She said she would. She meant you to
marry her, and she's making you marry her. I daresay she said she would.
She's as clever and determined as the devil. Neither you nor Headley
Richards ever had a chance against her."

"She hasn't got a dog's chance against all you people yelping at her now
she's down. I should have thought--"

"You mean _I_'ve no business to? That was different. I didn't take any
other woman's husband, or any other woman's lover, Nicky."

"If you had," said Nicky, "I wouldn't have interfered."

"I wouldn't interfere if I thought you cared _that_ for Desmond. But you
don't. You know you don't."

"Of course I care for her."

He said it stoutly, but he coloured all the same, and Vera knew that he
was vulnerable.

"Oh, Nicky dear, if you'd only waited--"

"What do you mean?"

His young eyes interrogated her austerely; and she flinched. "I don't
know what I mean. Unless I mean that you're just a little young to
marry anybody."

"I don't care if I am. I don't _feel_ young, I can tell you. Anyhow
Desmond's years younger."

"Desmond is twenty-three. You're twenty. It's Veronica who's years
younger."

"Veronica?"

"She's sixteen. You don't imagine Desmond is as young as that, do you?
Wait till she's twenty-five and you're twenty-two."

"It wouldn't do poor Desmond much good if I did. I could kill Headley
Richards."

"What for?"

"For leaving her."

Vera smiled. "That shows how much you care. You wouldn't have felt like
killing him if he'd stuck to her. Why should you marry Headley Richards'
mistress and take on his child? It's preposterous."

"It isn't. If the other fellow's a brute it's all the more reason why I
shouldn't be. I want to be some use in this rotten world where people
are so damnably cruel to each other. And there's that unhappy kiddy.
You've forgotten the kiddy."

"Do you mean to say it's Desmond's child _you_'re thinking of?"

"I can't understand any woman not thinking of it," said Nicky.

He looked at her, and she knew that he remembered Veronica.

Then she gave him back his own with interest, for his good.

"If you care so much, why don't you choose a better mot