"Things prevented it. We must choose the right moment to spring this. It's bound to knock them over for a minute. I'm thinking it all out. Probably you don't quite realise, Sabina, what this means from their point of view. The first thing is to get my aunt on my side; Daniel's hopeless, of course." She stared at him. "What in God's name has come over you? You talk as though you hadn't a drop of blood in your veins. Were you deaf yesterday? Didn't you hear me tell you I was with child by you? 'Their point of view'! What about my point of view?" "Don't get excited, my dear girl. Do give me credit for some sense. This is a very ticklish business, and the whole of our future--yours, of course, quite as much as mine--will depend on what I do during the next few days. Do try to realise that. If I make a mistake now, we may repent it for fifty years." "What d'you call making a mistake? What choice of action have you got if you're a gentleman? It kills me--kills me to hear you talking about making a mistake; and your hard voice means that you think you've made one. What have I done but love you with all my heart and soul? What have I ever done to make you put other people's points of view before mine?" "I'm not--I'm not, Sabina." "You are. You used to understand me so well and know what was in my mind before I spoke, and now--now before this--the greatest thing in the world for me--you--" "Talk quietly, for goodness' sake. You don't want all Bridetown to hear us." "You can say that? And you go out walking with a child and--" "Look here, Sabina, you must pull yourself together, or else you stand a very good chance of bitching up our show altogether," he answered calmly. "This thing has got to be carried out by me, not you; and if you are not going to let me do it my own way, then so much the worse for both of us. I won't be dictated to by you, or anybody, and if you're not contented to believe in me, then I can only say you're making a big mistake and you'll very soon find it out." "What are you going to do, then?" she asked, "and when are you going to do it? I've a right to know that, I suppose?" "To think you can talk in that tone of voice to me--to me of all people!" "To think you can force me to! And now you'll say you've seen things in me you never thought were there, and turn it over in your mind--and--and oh, it's cowardly--it's cruel. And you call yourself an honourable man and could tell me and swear to me only yesterday that I was more to you than anything else in the world!" "D'you know what you're doing?" he asked. "D'you want to make me--there--I won't speak it--I won't come down to your level and forget myself and say things that I'd break my heart to think of afterwards. I must go now, or that girl will be wondering what the deuce has happened. She's told her father already that you weren't happy or something; so I suppose you must have been talking. I'll come in this evening. You'd better go home now as quick as you can."