He heard Claire speaking a
long way off: 'I was there with Lady Wetherby. It was she who
invited me to come to America. I went to the restaurant to see her
dance--and I saw you!'
With a supreme effort Bill succeeded in calming down the excited
landscape. He willed the trees to stop dancing, and they came
reluctantly to a standstill. The world ceased to swim and flicker.
'Let me explain,' he said.
The moment he had said the words he wished he could recall them.
Their substance was right enough; it was the sound of them that
was wrong. They sounded like a line from a farce, where the erring
husband has been caught by the masterful wife. They were
ridiculous. Worse than being merely ridiculous, they created an
atmosphere of guilt and evasion.
'Explain! How can you explain? It is impossible to explain. I saw
you with my own eyes making an exhibition of yourself with a
horrible creature in salmon-pink. I'm not asking you who she is.
I'm not questioning you about your relations with her at all. I
don't care who she was. The mere fact that you were at a public
restaurant with a person of that kind is enough. No doubt you
think I am making a great deal of fuss about a very ordinary
thing. You consider that it is a man's privilege to do these
things, if he can do them without being found out.
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