And it explained things.

It explained, among other things, why he had gone to stay at the Grand Babylon Hotel.

That must have been the inception of the delusion.

She was glad to know the worst.
She adored him more than ever.
There was a silence.
"No," she repeated, in the most matter-of-fact tone, "I should say nothing, in your place.

I should forget it." "You would ?" He drummed on the table.
"I should! And whatever you do, don't worry." Her accents were the coaxing accents of a nurse with a child--or with a lunatic.
He perceived now with the utmost clearness that she did not believe a word of what he had said, and that in her magnificent and calm sagacity she was only trying to humour him.