‘By the way,’ he said, when they had sat down. ‘I’ve finished the magnum opus.’
‘Finished!’ she exclaimed, glowing with excited pleasure. ‘How fine! Aren’t you tremendously glad?’
‘It’s a relief,’ he admitted. ‘I shall take a week’s rest and then start the revision.’
She, exulting still in the accomplished work, could spare no thought for the revision.
‘How jolly to have finished! You didn’t tell me you were near the end?’
‘Ah, you’d forgotten then.’ He smiled indulgently. ‘I told you a fortnight ago that I should finish on the thirteenth of this month.’
She was suitably astonished.
‘You mean to say you knew to a day?’
‘I work on a programme, you see,’ he said, relishing her surprised admiration.
Now that the work was done he seemed to have time for human weaknesses. This unexpected boyish vanity made Sheila like him more than she had ever done before.