'And I haven't either,' I was forced to admit. 'Well then,' said Dolly. I straightened myself, and we looked at each other. Her eyes have a kind of sweet radiance. Siegfried must have been pleased when he saw her coming down the sheet into his arms. 'You mustn't tell me anything you don't quite want to,' said Dolly, her sweet eyes smiling, 'but I couldn't see you looking so unhappy and not come and--well, stroke you.' 'There isn't anything to tell,' I said, comforted by the mere idea of being stroked. 'Yes there is.' 'Not really. It's only that once--oh well, what's the good? I don't want to think of it--I want to forget.' Dolly nodded. 'Yes,' she said. 'Yes.' 'You see I came here to get cured by forgetting, and I thought I was cured. And this morning I found I wasn't, and it has--and it has disappointed me.' 'You musn't cry, you know,' said Dolly gently. 'Not in the middle of picking red currants. There's the man--' She glanced at Antoine, digging. I snuffled away my tears without the betrayal of a pocket handkerchief, and managed to smile at her. 'What idiots we go on being,' I said ruefully. 'Oh--idiots!' Dolly made a gesture as of including the whole world. 'Does one ever grow up?' I asked. 'I don't know. I haven't.' 'But do you think one ever learns to bear pain without wanting to run crying bitterly to one's mother?' 'I think it's difficult. It seems to take more time,' she added smiling, 'than I've yet had, and I'm forty. You know I'm forty?' 'Yes. That is, I've been told so, but it hasn't been proved.' 'Oh, I never could _prove_ anything,' said Dolly. Then she put on an air of determination that would have alarmed Mrs. Barnes, and said, 'There are several other things that I am that you don't know, and as I'm here alone with you at last I may as well tell you what they are. In fact I'm not going away from these currant bushes till I _have_ told you.' 'Then,' I said, 'hadn't you better help me with the currants while you tell?' And I lifted the basket across and put it on the ground between us. Already I felt better. Comforted, cheered by Dolly's mere presence and the sweet understanding that seems to shine out from her. She turned up her sleeves and plunged her arms into the currant bushes. Luckily currants don't have thorns, for if it had been a gooseberry bush she would have plunged her bare arms in just the same. 'You have asked us to stay on,' she began, 'and it isn't fair that you shouldn't know exactly what you are in for.' 'If you're going to tell, me how your name is spelt,' I said, 'I've guessed that already. It is Juchs.' 'Oh, you're clever!' exclaimed Dolly unexpectedly. 'Well, if that's clever,' I said modestly, 'I don't know what you would say to _some_ of the things I think of.' Dolly laughed. Then she looked serious again, and tugged at the currants in a way that wasn't very good for the bush.