"I can't be. You're hampered all the time I'm here by the silly things I say; the way I spoil your talk." "You've no idea how much I like having you about. Like the sound of your voice; the way your colour takes the sun, your laughter. I envy you your sudden laughter, Miriam; the way you lift your chin, and laugh. You're wasted on yourself, Miriam. You don't know the fine individual things in yourself. You've got all sorts of illusions, but you've no idea where you really score." "Can't get on with anybody." "You get on with me all right. But you never tell _me_ nice things about myself. You only laugh at my jokes." "I've never told you a hundredth part. There's never any time. But I'll tell you one nice thing. There's a way in which ever since I've known you, you obliterate other men. Yes. For me. It's most tiresome." "Oh, my dear! Is that true, Miriam?" "Oh yes. From the first time I saw you. There you were. I can't bear your ideas. But I always find myself testing other men, better men, by the way, by you." "I haven't any ideas, Miriam, and I'm a reformed character. There's heaps of time. You're here another ten days yet. You shall camp in here. We'll talk, devastatingly." "If I once began----" "Begin. We're going to explore each other's minds." "I should bore you to death." "You never bore me. Really. It does me good to quarrel with Miriam. But we're not going to quarrel. We're going to explore each other and stop nowhere. Agreed?" "I've seen you _ill_ with boredom. You hate silence and you hate opposition. You always think people's minds are blank when they are silent. It's just the other way round. Only of course there are so many kinds of silence. But the test of absolutely everything in life is the quality of the in-between silences. It's only in silence that you can judge of your relationship to a person." "You shall be silent. You shall deploy a whole regiment of silences ... but you'll fire off an occasional volley of speech?" "Real speech can only come from complete silence. Incomplete silence is as fussy as deliberate conversation." "One has to begin somewhere. Deliberate conversation leads to real conversation. You _can_ talk, you know, Miriam. You're not a woman of the world. You don't come off all the time. But when you do, you come off no end." * * * * * If _his_ mind could be tackled even though there were no words to answer him with, then anyone's mind could be tackled....