“No. Much better to talk nonsense. Let’s talk nonsense. Does one eat oysters with a spoon or a fork?”
“I can’t——”
“But I want to know. I noticed we begin with oysters, and I’m not sure what tools to use. Surely you don’t want me to make a fool of myself. Come, tell me, how does one masticate oysters?”
“A fork is customary, I believe.”
“Thank you. That is what I wanted to know.”
There was a pause, during which the distant sound of voices reached them from the dim Forest background.
“They’re just coming,” she said. “They must have come by bus, like we did.”
He ground his heel into the carpet-matting.
“What I want to say——” he started suddenly. “It’s like this. I believe there was a—a sort of—er—misunderstanding between us at one time. Now I’m not prepared to say that I was altogether right. In fact——”
“I don’t remember any misunderstanding. I think I at any rate understood you perfectly. I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”