“I don’t put my hands much in my pockets when I’m working. I usually twirl a stick, or something, or point things out with a pencil.”
“But you could put your hand in your pocket only once in a long time and feel them.”
“I’m not lonely when I’m working. I have to think too hard to ever be lonely.”
“But you are not working now.”
“No. Only preparing the best way to be over-run.”
“I’m going to give them to you anyway. I’m quite sure Mummy will understand. Also I won’t need to tell her for quite a long time. She keeps no check on my things. I’m sure my maid would never tell her.”
“I don’t think I should take them.”
“You should, please, to give me pleasure.”
“I’m not sure it’s honorable.”
“That is like not being sure whether you are a virgin. What you do to give pleasure to another whom you love is most honorable.”
“All right,” the Colonel said. “I will take them for better or for worse.”
“Now you say thank you,” the girl said and slipped them into his pocket as quickly and ably as a jewel thief might. “I brought them with me because I have been thinking and deciding about this all week.”
“I thought you thought about my hand.”
“Don’t be surly, Richard. And you should never be stupid. It is your hand you touch them with. Didn’t you think of that?”
