He looked at her through narrowed eyes.
‘Ingenious notion. It didn’t occur to me. No, the fact is, knowing Clare better than my solicitors and the inquiry agents, I’m not too convinced that the evidence means what it seems to.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Yes, but I told you before, or Clare anyway, that I can’t and won’t go on with nothing settled, one way or the other. If she’ll come back I’ll wipe the whole thing out. If she won’t, it must take its chance. That’s not wholly unreasonable, and it’s not blackmail.’
‘And suppose she wins, will you be any further on?’
‘No.’
‘You could free yourself and her at any time, if you liked.’
‘At a price I don’t choose to pay. Besides, that sounds extremely like collusion – another awkward word, Dinny.’
Dinny stood still.
‘Well, I know what you want, and I’ll ask Clare. And now I’ll say good-bye. I don’t see that talking further will do any good.’
He stood looking at her, and she was moved by the expression on his face. Pain and puzzlement were peering through its hardwood browned mask.
‘I’m sorry things are as they are,’ she said, impulsively.
‘One’s nature is a hell of a thing, Dinny, and one’s never free from it. Well good-bye and good luck!’
She put out her hand. He gave it a squeeze, turned and walked off.
Dinny stood for some unhappy moments beside a little birch tree whose budding leaves seemed to tremble up towards the sunshine. Queer! To be sorry for him, for Clare, for young Croom, and be able to do nothing to help!
She walked back to South Square as fast as she could.
Fleur met her with: ‘Well?’
‘I’m afraid I can only talk to Clare about it.’
‘I suppose it’s an offer to drop it if Clare will go back. If she’s wise she will.’
Dinny closed her lips resolutely.
She waited till bed-time, and then went to Clare’s room. Her sister had just got into bed, on the foot of which Dinny sat down, and began at once:
‘Jerry asked me to see him. We met in Hyde Park. He says he’ll drop the case if you’ll go back – on your own terms.’
Clare raised her knees and clasped them with her hands.
‘Oh! And what did you say?’
‘That I’d ask you.’
‘Did you gather why?’
‘Partly, I think he really wants you; partly, he doesn’t much believe in the evidence.’
‘Ah!’ said Clare, drily: ‘Nor do I. But I’m not going back.’
‘I told him I didn’t think you would. He said we were “implacable.” ’
Clare uttered a little laugh.
‘No, Dinny. I’ve been through all the horrors of this case. I feel quite stony, don’t care whether we win or lose. In fact, I believe I’d rather we lost.’
Dinny grasped one of her sister’s feet through the bed-clothes. She was in two minds whether to speak of the feeling Corven’s face had roused in her.
Clare said uncannily:
‘I’m always amused when people think they know how husbands and wives ought to behave towards each other. Fleur was telling me about her father and his first wife; she seemed to think the woman made a great fuss for nothing much. All I can say is that to think you can judge anybody else’s case is just self-righteous idiocy. There’s never any evidence to judge from, and until cine-cameras are installed in bedrooms,’ she added, ‘there never will be. You might let him know, Dinny, that there’s nothing doing.’
Dinny got up.
‘I will. If only the thing were over!’
‘Yes,’ said Clare, tossing back her hair, ‘if only – ! But whether we shall be any further on, when it is, I don’t know. God bless the Courts of Law.’
That bitter invocation went up daily from Dinny, too, during the next fortnight, while the undefended causes, of which her sister’s might have been one, were softly and almost silently vanishing away. Her note to Corven said simply that her sister had answered: ‘No.’ No reply came to it.
At Dornford’s request she went with Clare to see his new house on Campden Hill. To know that he had taken it with the view of having a home for her, if she would consent to share it, kept her expressionless, except to say that it was all very nice, and to recommend a bird shelter in the garden. It was roomy, secluded, airy, and the garden sloped towards the south. Distressed at being so colourless, she was glad to come away; but the dashed and baffled look on his face when she said: ‘Good-bye’ hurt her. In their bus, going home, Clare said:
‘The more I see of Dornford, Dinny, the more I believe you could put up with him. He’s got very light hands; he lets your mouth alone. He really is a bit of an angel.’