“I thought he probably was,” she said sweetly. “I had dinner with him and Mac last night, and the fourth bottle was coming in as I left, or perhaps it was the fifth. I got a bit shickered myself and had to go to bed.”
Bob stopped suddenly in the middle of the path, and then strode on belligerently.
“Out with it,” she said calmly.
“I have nothing to say.” But it was the tone of a man who could have talked all night on the subject.
“Really! You began by telling me something you suspected I would not like to know. Why be squeamish about the rest of it?”
“Val, if you are going to be associated with that man I’m going to leave Dargaville.”
“That’s not necessary, Bob. Sack me instead.”
“Don’t talk rot.”
“Look here, Bob, calm down. The trouble is that you do not know me at all. Years ago you set up some vision and called it Valerie Carr. It never was Valerie Carr, and it never will be, and why on earth you want to keep on calling it Valerie Carr passes my comprehension. I’ve done my best as kindly as I could to show you I am not that vision. I did think I loved you and could marry you. I don’t know what happened to make me see I couldn’t. But I know something did. I’m willing to take the whole blame for that three months. I have never blamed you. But I couldn’t go on, Bob. And one can never go back and begin again in the same way. You want something entirely different from me. You want a woman who will go your own road.”
They had reached the office. He unlocked the door and they went in. Valerie did not take off her things. She sat on the edge of her desk looking at Bob, who had sat down and thrown his hat on to a pile of papers.
