I asked her if they knew I was there. She said, Yes, they were coming in to see me.
"They want to see you. They want to know."
I saw then what my work was to be. I was not only to witness to her innocence and Jevons's—if they doubted it; I was to show them what she had shown me in the garden at Bruges, the beauty of the whole thing as it appeared to her. I was to show them Jevons's beauty.
Well, I thought, it'll take some showing.
"Do they," I asked her, "at all realize Jevons?"
"Yes. They asked me if he was the man Reggie met at my rooms. Of course I had to say he was. It's almost a pity Reggie met him. That's what's frightened them. You see, he only saw the funny part of him."
(I could imagine what Reggie's description of the funny part of Jevons had been.)
I said she was asking me to do a rather difficult thing.
She said, "Yes. And I've made it worse by telling them I'm going to marry
Jimmy."
"And I'm to persuade them that that's the best thing you can do, am I?"