She nodded. “That’s all I am. I don’t feel grown up, at all—except with Dan. Then I feel old enough to be his mother.”

“Dan,” he repeated under his breath, and she said softly:

“Yes, Dan Darrin.”

His head swayed a little, back and forth, lowering at her. “Him you think you—love?”

“Him I do love.”

“How do you know so surely?”

“Oh—I know.”

“But if you’re a child, how can you know?”

“I know,” she repeated. “I—just know.”

His eyes lowered to the table, and he thought, heavily. When he looked at her again, he asked: “Ever know many men?”