‘Oh, you’re not a bore, you’re not! Only—don’t be so miserable.’
In the awkward silence that followed she said:
‘I must go.’
‘No, you’re not to go,’ he said gently. ‘Stay and talk to me.’ He paused. ‘The trouble is, I can’t sleep, you know, and it makes me a bit jumpy. I don’t like my thoughts, and they will, they will be thought about. But I shall get better in time.’
‘Poor Julian!’
He allowed his face to relax, and his manner was suddenly quiet and simple, almost happy: the unexpected sympathy had made him cheerful.
‘You mustn’t go, Judith, you must stay to supper.’
‘I can’t. What will Mariella say?’
‘Mariella doesn’t say. Whether she thinks is the problem,—or even feels. Is she a very remarkable person? Or is it simply arrested development?’
‘No. I don’t think so.’