“And you mean by that––?”
“That the first few minutes in which the mind revives are likely to be minutes of genuine reality. I don’t say that the mind could keep it up. Very few of us can be our genuine selves for more than flashes at a time; but a returning consciousness doesn’t put on its inhibitions till––”
“So that what you see in those few minutes you can take as the truth.”
“I should say so. I’m not in a position to affirm it; but the probabilities point that way.”
“And if there had been, let us say, a lesser affection, something of recent origin, and lower in every way––”
“I think that until it forged its influence again—if it ever did—you’d see it forgotten or disowned.”
She tried to be even more explicit. “He’s perfectly free, in every way. I broke off my engagement just to make him free. The—the other woman, she, too, has—has left him––”
“So that,” he summed up, “if in those first instants of returning to the world you could read his choice you’d be relieved of doubts for the future.”
Having made one or two small professional recommendations he was about to go when Barbara’s mind worked to another point. “You know, he’s been very excitable.”
“So I’ve understood. I go a good deal to the Chancellors’. You know them, of course. I’ve heard about him there.”