“You do seem to have had awful experiences of women,” she said.

“You see, I couldn’t fool myself. That’s where most men manage. They take an attitude, and accept a lie. I could never fool myself. I knew what I wanted with a woman, and I could never say I’d got it when I hadn’t.”

“But have you got it now?”

“Looks as if I might have.”

“Then why are you so pale and gloomy?”

“Bellyful of remembering: and perhaps afraid of myself.”

She sat in silence. It was growing late.

“And you do think it’s important, a man and a woman?” she asked him.

“For me it is. For me it’s the core to my life: if I have a right relation with a woman.”