"I?" he exclaimed.
"Oh, please don't pretend," she sighed. "What is it?"
"I told you," he said doggedly, "the other night."
"The other night?" she repeated. "What, when we were here?"
"Yes," he said.
She reflected for a moment. "About that girl, the one in Ireland? Do you mean that?"
"I do," he said.
"Do you mean it was true?" she asked with increasing tenseness.
"Quite true," he said.
"But you were laughing," she protested incredulously. "I took it for a joke."