The Cannibal Heart — Margaret Millar

A New York family rent a house in California in the hope of a tranquil summer. Mark Banner is a young, successful publisher, and his wife Evelyn is afraid of losing him. When the owner of the house returns, Evelyn recognizes the enemy at first sight.


“Listen, Mark. Do you really have a crush on her? I mean, when you look at her, do you -- do you want her?”
“No.” I was the first lie he told, and he told it as much for her sake as his own.
“You wouldn't admit it anyway.”
“Probably not.”
She said, after a time, “I wish you weren't so honest. Sometimes I think that people who bend over backward to be honest only do it to be -- to be cruel.”
“If I lied, though, you'd think up stronger words for me than cruel.”
“I guess.”
“It's a case of hell if I do and hell if I don't.”
She poured his coffee and passed it across the table. “I suppose you think I'm unreasonable?”
“No more than the average woman.”