Morriston's attitude I should have told him it was no use his
thinking of me. Considering the sequel, I wish I had done so; but it is
too late now for regrets. His love-making gave me a chance of defying my
stepmother, and I rather enjoyed baulking her plans to keep Archie and me
apart. If I did not encourage him--indeed, I refused him every time he
proposed--I did not dismiss him as I ought to have done, and he evidently
had an idea that perseverance would win the day. And so, after a
fashion, it did.
"Matters reached such a pitch at last that it became plain that I must
either consent to marry the man I loathed or leave my home for good.
Goaded on by my apparent encouragement of Archie Jolliffe, my stepmother
resolved to bring matters to a crisis. She started a terrific row with me
one day, my father was brought into it, and I stood up against them both.
The upshot was that when the interview was over I went out of the house
boiling with indignation and for the time utterly reckless. Chance caught
the psychological moment and threw me in the way of Archie Jolliffe. He
saw something was wrong and pressed me to tell him what had happened.
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