«Why not?»
«Too conventional,» I said. «Not enough courage. It would have needed tremendous courage.»
«Claudius could have persuaded her, he was very powerful.»
«So was her husband.»
«We only see him through Hamlet's eyes.»
«No. The ghost was a real ghost.»
«How do you know?»
«I just know.»
«Then the king must have been an awful bore.»
«That's another point.»
«I think some women have a nervous urge to commit adultery, especially when they reach a certain age.»
«Possibly.»
«Do you think the king and Claudius ever liked each other?»
«There's a theory that they were in love. Gertrude killed her husband because he was having a love affair with Claudius. Hamlet knew of course. No wonder he was neurotic. There are lots of veiled references to buggery. 'A mildewed ear blasting his wholesome brother.' Ear is phallic and wholesome is a pun-«I say! Where can I read about it?»
«I'm teasing you. They haven't thought of that yet, even in Oxford.»
I was walking fast and Julian had to give a little run every now and then to keep up. She kept turning towards me as she did so, performing a sort of dance beside me. I looked down at her bare brown very dirty feet executing these hops, skips and jumps.
We had nearly reached the place where I had seen her in the twilight tearing up the love letters, when I had at first taken her for a boy. I said, «How is Mr. Belling?»
«Please, Bradley-«Sorry.»
«No, you know you can say anything you like to me. All that's over and done, thank God.»
«Your balloon didn't come sailing back to you? You didn't wake up one morning and find it tied to your window?»
«No!»
At that moment Julian stopped outside the same shoe shop where I had parted from her on the previous occasion. «Oh I do adore those boots, the purple ones, I do wish they weren't so expensive!»
On impulse I said, «I'll buy them for you.» I wanted to gain a little time to think of a suitably plausible way of asking her to keep quiet.
«Oh Bradley, you can't, they're far too much, how awfully kind of you but you can't-'
