'Never.'
'You can't go on living this life.'
He put into his voice all the anguish of his heart and his face was drawn and tortured.
She smiled affectionately.
'Why not?
Don't be such a donkey.
You know I adore you, Humphrey, but you are rather an old woman.'
'Betty.
Betty.'
Did she not see that it was for her sake that he wanted it?
It was not love that made him speak, but human pity and shame.
She got up.
'Don't be tiresome, Humphrey.
You'd better go to bed, you know you have to be up with the lark.
I shan't see you in the morning.
Good-bye and God bless you.
It's been wonderful having you here.'
She kissed him on both cheeks.
Next morning, early, for he had to be on board at eight, when Carruthers stepped out of the front door he found Albert waiting for him in the car.
He wore a singlet, duck trousers, and a beret basque.
Carruthers' luggage was in the back.
He turned to the butler.
'Put my bags beside the chauffeur,' he said.
'I'll sit behind.'
Albert made no remark.
Carruthers got in and they drove off.
When they arrived at the harbour, porters ran up.
Albert got out of the car.
Carruthers looked down at him from his greater height.
'You need not see me on board.
I can manage perfectly well by myself.
Here's a tip for you.'
He gave him a five-pound note.
Albert flushed.
He was taken aback, he would have liked to refuse it, but did not know how to and the servility of years asserted itself.
Perhaps he did not know what he said.
'Thank you, sir.'
Carruthers gave him a curt nod and walked away.
He had forced Betty's lover to call him 'sir'.
It was as though he had struck her a blow across that smiling mouth of hers and flung in her face an opprobrious word.
It filled him with a bitter satisfaction.
He shrugged his shoulders and I could see that even this small triumph now seemed vain.
For a little while we were silent.
There was nothing for me to say.
Then he began again.
'I dare say you think it's very strange that I should tell you all this.
I don't care.
You know, I feel as if nothing mattered any more. I feel as if decency no longer existed in the world.
Heaven knows, I'm not jealous.
You can't be jealous unless you love and my love is dead.