“But I am married,” she said amazed, and yet feeling nothing.

“Oh that!⁠ ⁠… he’ll divorce you all right.⁠ ⁠… Why don’t you and I marry? I want to marry. I know it would be the best thing for me⁠ ⁠… marry and lead a regular life. I lead the deuce of a life, simply tearing myself to pieces. Look here, you and I, we’re made for one another⁠ ⁠… hand and glove. Why don’t we marry? Do you see any reason why we shouldn’t?”

Connie looked at him amazed: and yet she felt nothing. These men, they were all alike, they left everything out. They just went off from the top of their heads as if they were squibs, and expected you to be carried heavenwards along with their own thin sticks.

“But I am married already,” she said. “I can’t leave Clifford, you know.”