"Assuming that that water's the ocean, I study it because there's nothing else to look at. We were opposite each other at two tables in a restaurant."
"Was there nobody there but just you and me?"
"Yes, there was a lady."
My heart gave a thump. "At your table or at mine?"
"At yours."
"Did she"—I was aware of the foolish wording of the question without being able to put it in any other way—"did she have large dark eyes?"
"Not in the back of her head, which was all I saw of her."
Once more I expressed myself stupidly. "Did you—did you think it was—my wife—or just a friend?"
She burst out laughing. "How could I tell? You speak as if you didn't know. You're certainly the queerest kid—"
I tried to recover my lost ground. "I do know, but—"