And even when it was all over, and he was in his bedroom standing before the looking-glass to arrange his tie, he could not believe that it had really happened. It was impossible that grown-up people should be so foolish. He could understand that Mrs. Curtis should be annoyed at his attentions to her daughter. He had been prepared for that. If she had said, “Roland, you’re both of you too old for that. It was well enough when you were both children, but it won’t do now; April is growing up,” he could have appreciated her point of view. Perhaps they were too old for the love-making of childhood. But that she should take up the attitude that they were too young for the serious matrimonial entanglements of man and womanhood! It was beyond the expectation of any sane intelligence.
In a way he could not help feeling annoyed with April. If she had not told her mother nothing would have happened.
“Oh, but how silly,” she said, when he told her about it next day. “I do wish I had been there. It must have been awfully funny!”
Roland had not considered it in that light and hastened to tell her so.
“I felt a most appalling fool. It was beastly. I can’t think why you told your mother anything about it.”
She looked up quickly, surprised by the note of impatience in his voice.
“But, Roland, dear, what else could I do? She asked me and I couldn’t tell a lie. Could I?”
“I don’t know,” said Roland. And he began to walk backwards and forwards, up and down the room. “I suppose you couldn’t help it, but.... Oh, well, what did you say to her?”
“Nothing much. She asked me.... Oh, but, Roland, do sit down,” she pleaded. “I can’t talk when you’re walking up and down the room.”
“All right,” said Roland, sitting down. “Go on.”
“Well, she asked me if I liked you and I said that we were great friends, and then she asked if we weren’t more than friends.”
“Oh, yes, yes, I know,” said Roland, rising impatiently from his chair and walking across the room. “Of course you said we were, and that I had been making love to you, and that--oh, but what’s the good of going on with it? I know what she said and what you said, and the whole thing was out in three minutes, and then your mother comes round to my mother and they talk and they talk, and that’s how all the trouble in the world begins.”