“Absolutely,” she answered firmly, evidently recognizing that this allusion to her original trouble was a sign of a certain withdrawal in her companion. “And please, please, believe me when I tell you that I hardly ever⁠ ⁠… no, practically never⁠ ⁠… give way like that.”

“What do you think did it?” he blurted out clumsily. “Those silly boys deserting you?”

She made no reply at all to this; and he experienced a wave of embarrassment that brought a hot prickling sensation into his cheeks.

“You’ve been very kind to me,” she said unexpectedly, in a clear emphatic voice. And then she added very slowly, pronouncing the words as if each of them were a heavy bar of silver and she were an exhausted stevedore emptying the hold of a ship, “Kinder⁠ ⁠… to me⁠ ⁠… than anyone’s⁠ ⁠… ever been⁠ ⁠… in the whole of my life.”