"He's due to arrive next week. There's going to be an international
medical conference, or something of the sort, and he's one of the star
turns.... Another is Hermann, the spinal fellow--you've heard of him,
haven't you? Father's going to consult him, and if there's the least
chance of a cure by operation, he says he'll take the risk."
She went on: "I suppose I'm getting to know my father for really the
first time in my life. It's queer ... I keep on thinking--'What sort of
a man _are_ you?'--and I can't _quite_ make up my mind.... But I like
him. He's _game_." She gave me a sharp upward glance and added: "Perhaps
you think I'm heartless to be able to talk about him so calmly? Most
people seem to imagine I ought to be coddling and making a great fuss
over him ... I _couldn't_ do it--I'm not made that way. And neither is
he."
That was as much as I ever heard her say about him. I don't think she
would have said even that but for an unwillingness to drive too abruptly
to the main object of her visit, which was to ask me questions about
Terry. And the first question, when at last she came to it, was: "What's
happened in his past life to make him like--like _this_?"
"Like what?"
She paused for a short while and then said: "It's as if he's had one
blow after another until he doesn't care any more about anything--that's
my impression. He does what I ask him to do, but still he doesn't care."
"And you want him to care?"
"Of course I do. And you can help me--you've known him for years. Tell
me what's happened to him. What's been the real cause of his breakdown?"
I gave her as carefully as I could a summary of all that I could
possibly tell her. I stressed the hard work that he had been doing, and
Karelsky's shabby treatment of him, and the shock of hearing about her
father's accident. And when I had got to the end, she said quietly: "Is
that all?"
"I think it is."
"Won't you tell me the rest?"
"The rest? I don't know that there is any rest."
"All the same, I have an idea there is." She stared at me unflinchingly,
and then added: "Never mind--if you won't tell me, then you won't. Let's
talk of something else."
And we did.