He was silent. Then he said: "Well, tell me all about it, please; I want to hear everything."
She smiled at the familiar words. "That won't take twenty minutes; I can say it in less than two."
"Then say it," he commanded.
"I was bottled, after all," she told him with mock solemnity, but her voice shook a little.
He took her hand and pressed it very gently. "I know that, my dear."
She said: "You stopped writing rather suddenly, I thought. Why was that?"
He hesitated. "Well, you know, after Elizabeth's marriage and your decision to throw up the sponge—you remember you wrote to me of your decision, don't you?—— Well, after that I did write occasionally, for a year or two, but then it all seemed so hopeless, and I realized that you didn't mean to marry me, so I thought it best to let you go. I had my work, Joan, and I tried to wipe you out; you were a disturbing element."
She nodded. She could understand his not having wanted a distraction in the days when he was making his career, she could even understand his having dropped her; what interest could he have had in so disappointing a life as hers? "And you, on the other hand, have made good?" she queried, continuing her own train of thought.
He sighed. "Oh, yes, I suppose so; I'm considered a very successful man, I believe."
It came to her as a shock that she ought to know something about this very successful man, and that the mere fact that she knew nothing showed how completely she had dropped away from all her old interests.