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they stood immovable, then without a word Ann put her two hands against his breast, and stepped back. His grip relaxed, and his hands released her.

“Very well, I will be honest,” she said quietly. “Many times before you made it plain to me that you did not want me, I debated in my mind the...the question of marriage with you. You aren’t the sort of man I should willingly have chosen to... love. Class consciousness is a stupid overworked phrase, and yet we’re all class conscious—we can’t help it. There are little differences between us—between you and me. They might be quite enough to wreck our happiness—I don’t know. We should each need to be patient with the other. And I think we neither of us are very patient. You are self-willed, and though you’re ignorant in many ways, that doesn’t diminish your pride and arrogance.”

“Haven’t you any faults?”

“Very many, but they aren’t quite the same as yours, and therefore I might not be tolerant enough with you. And yet—I made up my mind that if you wanted me...to be your wife, I’d say—yes, because”—she hesitated for a moment and then went on bravely—“I think I could have learnt to love you more than I could ever love another man.”

He made a movement as though to take her in his arms again, but she held up her hand.

“No, you’re not to do that any more. Even now, though you want me, marriage seems a tie—a bondage to you. I wouldn’t marry any man who felt like that, for there’s no bondage in marriage if people are truly mated. You show me that we shouldn’t be.”

She opened the outer door, and he moved slowly towards it. In the entrance he turmed once more.