THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER
to increasing girth. I find I can’t run as I used . . . I get winded quickly. I’ve noticed it at tennis. Yet I don’t consider myself old. I’m still young spiritually . . . mentally. At least, I hope I may call myself so. I still . . . don’t laugh at me, Jenny . . . I still love you. The fact that I have not mentioned it lately does not mean that my affections have changed.
Jenny : Are you proposing to me again, Frank?
Frank : It’s not kind of you to laugh, Jenny. I was not proposing, because you have given me to understand . . . many times . . . that there was no hope. If I thought that you had changed . . . softened towards me . . . is there, Jenny, any chance of your reconsidering?
Jenny : None, Frank. I’m sorry.
Frank : We’re not boy and girl any longer. Doesn’t the fact that I still care for you . . . with the same regard . . . after all these years, count for anything?
Jenny : Fifteen years, Frank, since you first proposed to me. And I still see you as I did then. I might be Chris.
Frank : Jenny, in former days I thought you refused me because of Chris. I’m ashamed to admit that I was jealous of him. I imagined that you were in love with him. But it can’t still be that.
Jenny (her face averted) : No.
46
