Her nod of the head in the direction of the mantelpiece, where he had first caressed her, made clear to him what her words implied.

He got up from his chair and stood in front of her, looking down at her lifted face.

“No,” he said. “I didn’t mean because of ‘that.’ I meant because we misunderstood each other; which was all my fault.”

Christie began to smile. “I’m not prudish or unfeeling in things like that,” she said. “But I’ve a queer nature, Wolf. I love the romance of being in love, and I like you, Wolf, better than anyone I’ve ever met; and I like you to make love to me. It’s only⁠ ⁠… it’s only that⁠—with the life I’ve had and the mother I had⁠—I seem to have none of an ordinary girl’s feelings in these things.”

Wolf began pacing up and down the room.