you. And I tried to see how little you had had at home except a lot of meaningless show, and that it was no wonder you had taken refuge with women who might give you something that looked real. For I came to see that we were all after something that was real, deep down inside us, only it is so hard to know what is, especially when you’re young. And then I went after it myself. I needed something to blot out that ugly memory, something that looked beautiful to me. And I thought I was in love, and I lived with another man, before I came up here. I told Dane that. I thought it was the fine thing I wanted. But it didn’t turn out right. I wanted it too much as a refuge, I see that now. But it taught me what one must have to be fine in love, and then up here ———”
She paused, seeing Lee give a preliminary peep through the door as if to decide whether it was an appropriate moment to bring out the tea. He came forward, removed the decanter and glasses to a large table, and put the tea tray on the red one, saw that tobacco and matches were where they should be and went out.
His exit was followed by a curious silence. Dane stood where he had been for some minutes, with the fantail, its curiosity about the other man apparently satisfied, now flitting about his head. He looked up at it once and smiled at it. Davenport Carr sat doubled up, his head down on his clenched hands, pulverized into speechlessness. Valerie looked down at him, and her anger now expended, pity began to soften the contemptuous coldness of her face. She moved to the tea-table and sat down and began to pour the tea.
Dane turned, caught her eye, looked meaningly from her to her father and walked off towards the back of the house. Her nerves were still raw enough to be irritated by this hint. But she spoke quietly to her father.
