"I have found it to be quite true. I often dreamed of good company here in my wilderness and a charming woman about my cabin. It has happened."
"But even that has its very strong drawbacks, hasn't it?"
"What, for example?" He looked at her, earnestly.
"Oh," she hesitated, laughed, and said, "the rapidly depleted food supply, your time for thought broken, and all the rest."
"One sometimes finds a relief from thought very agreeable."
She wanted to laugh at the force with which his words struck her. "I'm sure that depends on the thought, as Lawrence would say," she answered, smiling.
"It does. And there is nothing I would not give to escape from my present thoughts." His voice was pitched low.
Her heart failed her, but she said bravely, "Perhaps you need a confessor, Sir Philip."
"I do, a gracious one, who can listen well."
"Then a woman would never serve," Claire laughed. "She would want to talk, you know."