"I agree with you that the time has come for plain speaking. I am glad that it has come. I will speak as plainly as I can." "First of all, you are not a derelict, Alfred. You are more like--a ship that has not found herself. You know what happens on a trial trip? The ship has not found herself. The Captain, and the crew, have got to get to know her. She ships the sea. Bolts and plates stretch and strain. Queer things happen in the engine room. And then, suddenly, all in a moment, the ship finds herself, rights herself. You will be--like that. Your trial trip has been run in a storm. You have been plunged, at the start into hurricane weather. But you will find yourself, right yourself. And, when your moment comes, you will sail the seas with any craft afloat. "But that is--politics! And you, and I, are not really greatly interested in politics, are we? What we are really interested in is--ourselves--our own intimacy, our own relationship. When you say that you don't know where you are, where you stand, what you mean, at the back of your mind, is that you don't know where _we_ are, and where _we_ stand. I will tell you where I stand. If I tell you where I stand, you will be able to see--your own position. I will speak, as plainly as I can, about myself--" Judith paused there, as if she wished to marshal her thoughts, and fit them with words. The King kept his eyes fixed upon her face. His instinct had been right. Judith understood him, better than he understood himself. Already, he was conscious that the tumult within him was subsiding. Judith, with her clear eyes, and sure touch, would disentangle the mingled threads of their strange destiny, rearrange them, and put them straight. "First of all, I want you to understand that I know that there can be no change in, no development, no outcome of--our friendship," Judith resumed slowly. "And I want you to know that I am--content that it should be so. My life has been full of--much that many women miss. I had Jack, my husband. I have the Imps. I have Uncle Bond. And I have--you. "Your--friendship--has become very precious to me, Alfred. When you first came here, I liked you, I think, because you reminded me of Jack. It was the sea, and the Navy, of course. The sea, and the Navy, mark a man, don't they? They give him a certain style, and stamp. But that was only a superficial, surface resemblance, of course. I had not known you very long before I realized that you were quite unlike Jack.