“You are going to tell her, aren’t you?” Starling relentlessly asked me the one question I was hiding from. “I don’t know,” I said grimly. “Oh,” she said. Then after a time, she added, “When a man says that, it usually means, ‘No, I won’t, but from time to time, I’ll toy with the idea, so I can pretend I eventually intend to do it.’ ” “Would you please shut up?” There was no strength in my words. Starling followed me silently. After a time, she observed, “I don’t know who to pity. You, or her.”
