It was she who was wielding the knife now.
"But it is true," she said.
"We could so easily pretend that it isn't." That was not what he said, though it was at his heart.

He sat down, saying: "This is a terrible blow, but better you should tell it to me than leave me to find it out." He was determined to save the flag for Grizel, though he had to try all the Tommy ways, one by one.
"Have I hurt you ?" she asked anxiously.

She could not bear to hurt him for a moment.

"What did I say ?" "It amounts to this," he replied huskily: "you love me, but you wish you did not; that is what it means." He expected her to be appalled by this; but she stood still, thinking it over.

There was something pitiful in a Grizel grown undecided.
"Do I wish I did not ?" she said helplessly.