‘Say you love me,’ she pleaded. ‘Say you will love me for ever — won’t you — won’t you?’

But it was her voice only that coaxed him. Her senses were entirely apart from him, cold and destructive of him. It was her overbearing WILL that insisted.

‘Won’t you say you’ll love me always?’ she coaxed. ‘Say it, even if it isn’t true — say it Gerald, do.’

‘I will love you always,’ he repeated, in real agony, forcing the words out.

She gave him a quick kiss.

‘Fancy your actually having said it,’ she said with a touch of raillery.

He stood as if he had been beaten.