“I shall be here for Christmas with your permission,” he said, “just to give Dennis a treat. You may have him alone a bit first and--and tonic him up for so much pleasure. He kept writing to me when I was in Capri, saying he wished I was here, and that he was sorry I should not be back before he went to Eton. There was a sarcastic touch about that which made me laugh.” Violet shook her head. “No, you’re wrong there,” she said. “There was nothing sarcastic about it.” He looked at her with a sort of malignant pity. “You make me feel sick sometimes,” he said, “with that sort of remark. I suppose Dennis thought it a positive joy to be thrashed by me.” “You thrashed him?” said she. “Do you really expect me to believe he hasn’t told you that?” sneered Colin, “and that you haven’t wept over me for it?” “It doesn’t matter to me whether you believe it or not,” said she. “Dennis never said a word about it. What had he done?” Colin smiled. “Nothing very particular----” “And so you thrashed him! That was brutal of you.” “Thank you for that kind word,” said he. “But I wish you wouldn’t interrupt in the middle of a sentence. I didn’t thrash him for what he did, but for what he was.” It was just on occasions like these, when Colin, as now, was in his most fiendish mood, that she felt this sudden pang of compassion for him. “Oh, my poor Colin!” she said. “That’s what is the matter with you. It isn’t what you do; it’s what you are.” “The noble art of tu quoque,” remarked Colin. “But it’s a rather meaningless art. Don’t my actions express me pretty well? I fancied I shewed myself fairly frankly to Dennis in the summer.” “No, you only shewed him what you’re trying to be,” said Violet. “You shall explain that in a minute,” he said. “I was saying that I gave a sincere exposition of myself. I hate Dennis, you see: I hate the fact of his existence. Stanier will be his when I’ve gone to hell; probably the knowledge of that will be what constitutes hell for me, and I allow it will be damnable. But until then I can make it pretty damnable for him.” Colin took a cigarette. “But there’s more than that,” he said. “I hate love and, if you’re right--thanks for the hint--Dennis loves me. I’m going to kill that, not only because I abominate it, but because it will help to wither Dennis’s soul. I want to make him like me: I should delight in him then. I might even be pleased to know that Stanier would be his. Is that all clear? If so, you might explain what you meant when you said I only shewed him what I’m trying to be.” She looked at him as she might have looked at some sick child. “It’s very simple,” she said. “You’re trying to hate Dennis, and you’re trying to make him hate you. You’re acting as if you hated him. But you’re not succeeding.”