“I know,” he repeated obstinately. “But don’t let’s be ungrateful to the gods, Christie. Think, how easy for us never to have met at all! Think, how I might have gone on with my life in London, you with your life in Blacksod! But now it’s all different. And there really is a sense⁠ ⁠… don’t you see, Christie?⁠ ⁠… in which by just knowing each other and being as we are we’ve got outside Time and outside Space! We’ve got into a region where all this⁠—”

“Stop, Wolf, stop!” the girl cried. “I can’t bear it now. I tell you I can’t⁠—”

He moved towards her, seeking to touch her; but she drew away from him.

“Forgive me!” she said, in a low, quiet voice. “It isn’t that I don’t understand you. I feel all those things. It’s only that⁠ ⁠… at the end⁠ ⁠… when I’ve got to leave you⁠ ⁠… that all this seems⁠ ⁠… I mean doesn’t seem⁠ ⁠…”