Page:The Painted Veil - Maugham - 1925.djvu/154

 She forced herself to speak though she could hardly frame the words.

“Did you really want me to die when you brought me here?”

“If I were you I’d leave well alone, Kitty. I don’t think any good will come of talking about what we should do much better to forget.”

“But you don’t forget; neither do I. I’ve been thinking a great deal since I came here. Won’t you listen to what I have to say?”

“Certainly.”

“I treated you very badly. I was unfaithful to you.”

He stood stock still. His immobility was strangely terrifying.

“I don’t know whether you’ll understand what I mean. That sort of thing doesn’t mean very much to a woman when it’s over. I think women have never quite understood the attitude that men take up.” She spoke abruptly, in a voice she would hardly have recognised as her own. “You know what Charlie was and you knew what he’d do. Well, you were quite right. He’s a worthless creature. I suppose I shouldn’t have been taken in by him if I hadn’t been as worthless as he. I don’t ask you to forgive me. I don’t ask you to love me as you used to love me. But couldn’t we be friends? With all these people dying in thousands round us, and with those nuns in their convent ”

“What have they got to do with it?” he interrupted.

“I can’t quite explain. I had such a singular feel-