“Why don’t I what?”
“Why don’t you wish her many happy returns? It doesn’t seem much to
ask.”
“But she says on her birthday.”
“Well, when is her birthday?”
“Can’t you understand?” said Bobbie. “I’ve forgotten.”
“Forgotten!” I said.
“Yes,” said Bobbie. “Forgotten.”
“How do you mean, forgotten?” I said. “Forgotten whether it’s the
twentieth or the twenty-first, or what? How near do you get to it?”
“I know it came somewhere between the first of January and the
thirty-first of December. That’s how near I get to it.”
“Think.”
“Think? What’s the use of saying ‘Think’? Think I haven’t thought? I’ve
been knocking sparks out of my brain ever since I opened that letter.”
“And you can’t remember?”
“No.”