He told me on a Sunday evening, unprompted, which was characteristic of the way he communicated the things that actually mattered to him. He did not schedule significant disclosures. He waited until the conditions were right, and when they were right, he said the thing, without preamble.
We had been sitting in the private sitting room after supper, which was one of the evenings we spent there rather than in the study, the evenings when the work was done and the day had closed and what remained was simply the time before sleep. The fire was burning well. The estate was quiet. I had been reading something that was not household business and he had been looking at the fire with the expression of a man thinking about something that was not the fire.
Then he said: "I want to tell you something."
I set the book down. "All right," I said.
