Dick brought his meditations to a close with equal abruptness, or perhaps he would not have been so caustic as regards his first cousin.
"Oh, Archie's an ass!" he said. "We can leave him out."
Jack changed the subject again. He was feeling the situation very acutely indeed, and the result was that all its elements came tumbling out anyhow.
"I've been beastly uncomfortable," he said.
"Yes?" said Dick. "Any particular way?"
Jack shifted one leg over the other. He had not approached one element in the situation at all, as yet, with Dick, but it had been simmering in him for weeks, and had been brought to a point by Frank's letter received this morning. And now the curious intimacy into which he had been brought with Dick began to warm it out of him.
"You'll think me an ass, too, I expect," he said. "And I rather think it's true. But I can't help it."
Dick smiled at him encouragingly. (Certainly, thought Jack, this man was nicer than he had thought him.)
"Well, it's this—" he said suddenly. "But it's frightfully hard to put into words. You know what I told you about Frank's coming to me at Barham?"
"Yes."