In the difficulty he was in, he thought it best to go on telling the truth until it became absolutely impossible, and then fall back on invention.
"The fact is, Miss Tyrrell," he said, "that I can't be absolutely certain whether the engagement is ended or not at this precise moment."
Her face was alive with the sweetest sympathy.
"Poor Mr. Tourmalin!" she said, "how horribly anxious you must be to get back and know!"
"Ah!" said Peter, "yes, I--I shall know when I get home, I suppose."
And he sighed; for the orange recurred once more to his reluctant memory.
"Don't tell me if it pains you too much," she said gently. "I only ask because I do feel so sorry for you. Do you think that, when you do get home, you will find her married?"
"I have every reason for believing so," he said.
"That will be a terrible blow for you, of course?"
"A blow?" said Peter, forgetting himself. "Good gracious me, no! Why _should_ it be? I--I mean, I shall be prepared for it, don't you know!"
"Then it's not so bad after all?" she said.
"It's not at all bad!" said Peter, with a vague intention of loyalty to Sophia. "I like it!"
"I think I understand," she said slowly: "you will not be sorry to find she has married; but she may tell you that she never had the least intention of letting you go so easily?"
"Yes," said Peter, "she may tell me that, certainly"--("if she finds out where I've been," he added, mentally).
"And," she continued, "what would you do then?"
"I suppose," he said--"I suppose I should have to do whatever she wished."
"Yes!" she agreed warmly, "you _will_ do that, even if it costs you something, won't you? Because it will be the only right, the only honourable course to take--you will be the happier for it in the end, Mr. Tourmalin, I am sure you will!"
After all, it seemed to him that she must understand about the Time Cheques--or, why should she urge him to give them up if Sophia demanded such a sacrifice?
"No, I shall not," he said; "I shall miss these times terribly. You don't know what they are to me, or you wouldn't speak like that!"
"Mr. Tourmalin!" she cried, "I--I must not listen to you! You can't possibly mean what you seem to mean. It is wrong--wrong to me, and wrong to her--to say things that--that, for all you know, you are not free to say! Don't let me think badly of you!"