"You can’t get the slate clean when the scratches are too deep, Claude. To forgive and act as though nothing had changed is hard; to forgive and act as though everything had changed is harder still. We must both be sensible and do the second, the harder thing." "What do you mean?" said Claude, in alarm. "I mean that we’ll be much happier apart." "Don’t say that again, Janet dearest. You are taking my conduct of the last two weeks too seriously. It isn’t fair. I’ve frequently behaved abominably. I don’t try to excuse it. I admit it. But remember the constant worry I’ve had to put up with at this cursed Brussels office. That boor of a Walloon in charge has undoubtedly had orders from my father to be a thorn in my side. And he’s doing his level best to please. Not a day passes but what he gives me a hundred lancet scratches ending in a good stiletto stab." Worry had not made Claude less handsome. The ring and tang of his voice thrilled Janet almost as much as of old. His patrician manner and flashing blue eyes were almost as irresistible. Yet Janet put away his arm and said: "Claude, I know you’ve had a very trying time. It’s altogether on my account, isn’t it? All the more reason for me to go away." "But what on earth do you want to leave me for?" "For a thousand reasons." "You might deign to mention _one_." "Well, when you frown, you want me to be sad; when you laugh, you want me to be gay. You never think that I may have moods of my own, moods that won’t dance to your piping. You never think of any one but yourself." "Oh, don’t I? I’ve had you on my mind all day. I’ve thought of nothing else. And it’s not the first day that I’ve spent in a torment of worry about your attitude towards me." A great wave of self-pity swept through him and quite carried him off his feet. By precedent, it should have carried Janet off her feet, too. She stood her ground in silence. "For Heaven’s sake, don’t be obstinate," he said, his confidence beginning to desert him. "It isn’t late yet," he added, in a more pleading tone. "We can still have an awfully good time this evening. Do be nice—" "Nice!" She stood up and looked at him. He mistook the mocking expression in her smiling gray eyes, and did not notice the faintly contracting brows above her long-lashed eyelids. "Yes, nice and reasonable," he went on, pursuing what he thought an advantage. "Reasonable!" The faint contraction was now a forbidding bar. "I’m trying hard to be reasonable, Claude." After a pause, she smiled again. "You pull me one way, reason pulls me another," she said, with characteristic candor. "Now see if my plan doesn’t follow reason. You left this morning, for a short while; I’m leaving tomorrow, for good and all. You left me in anger; I should like to leave you good friends. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. Will you help me?" He flung himself angrily into an armchair.