"Love...love me...love me," he whispered."That's what's the matter.I didn't know myself before I married you, Maggie.All these years I've lived like a fish and I didn't know it.But I know it now.And you've got to love me.You're my wife and you've got to love me."She would have given everything that she had then to respond.She felt an infinite tenderness and pity for him.But she could not.He felt that she could not.He let her go and turned away from her.She thought for a moment wondering what she ought to say, and then she came up to him and gently put her hand on his shoulder.
"Be patient, Paul," she said."You know we agreed before we married that we'd be friends at any rate and let the rest come.Wait...""Wait!" he turned round eagerly, clutching her arm."Then there is a chance, Maggie? You can get to love me--you can forget that other man?"She drew back."No, you know I told you that I should never do that.
But he'll never come back nor want me again and I'm very fond of you, Paul--fonder than I thought.Don't spoil it all now by going too fast--""Going too fast!" he laughed."Why, I haven't gone any way at all.Ihaven't got you anywhere.I can hardly touch you.You're away from me all the time.You're strange--different from every one...""I don't know anything about women.I've learnt a lot about myself this week.It isn't going to be as easy as I thought."She went up to him, close to him, and said almost desperately: "We MUST make this all right, Paul.We can if we try.I know we can."He kissed her gently with his old kindness."What a baby you are.
You didn't know what you were in for...Oh, we'll make it all right."They sat close together then and drank their tea.After all, Grace would be here in an hour! They both felt a kind of relief that they would no longer be alone.