"Yes. Then, too ... You see there aren't any shreds. The only thing you
can say is he can't help it. Nobody'd have been hard on him if he hadn't
gassed so much about danger."

"That's the part you can't understand.... But, Billy, why did you lie
about him?"

"Because I didn't want you to know, then. I knew it would hurt you, I
knew it would hurt you more than anything else."

"That was rather wonderful of you."

"Wasn't wonderful at all. I knew because what _you_ think, what _you_
feel, matters more to me than anything else. Except perhaps my job. I
have to keep that separate."

Her mind slid over that, not caring, returning to the object of
its interest.

"Look here, Billy, you may be right. It probably doesn't matter to us.
But it'll be perfectly awful for him."

"They can't do anything to him, Sharlie."

"It's what he'll do to himself."

"Suicide? Not he."

"I don't mean that. Can't you see that when he gets away to England,