Page 614 - of-human-bondage-

fatuation. If he said nothing more he was safe. But he had a
fiendish desire to break down their scruples, he wanted to
know how abominably they could behave towards him; if
he tempted them a little more they would yield, and he took
a fierce joy at the thought of their dishonour. Though every
word he spoke tortured him, he found in the torture a hor-
rible delight.
‘It looks as if it were now or never.’
‘That’s what I told him,’ she said.
There was a passionate note in her voice which struck
Philip. He was biting his nails in his nervousness.
‘Where were you thinking of going?’
‘Oh, to Oxford. He was at the ‘Varsity there, you know.
He said he’d show me the colleges.’
Philip remembered that once he had suggested going to
Oxford for the day, and she had expressed firmly the bore-
dom she felt at the thought of sights.
‘And it looks as if you’d have fine weather. It ought to be
very jolly there just now.’
‘I’ve done all I could to persuade him.’
‘Why don’t you have another try?’
‘Shall I say you want us to go?’
‘I don’t think you must go as far as that,’ said Philip.
She paused for a minute or two, looking at him. Philip
forced himself to look at her in a friendly way. He hated her,
he despised her, he loved her with all his heart.
‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll go and see if he can’t arrange
it. And then, if he says yes, I’ll come and fetch the money
tomorrow. When shall you be in?’

1