I--don't feel very good." He would not let Mary V help him at all, but walked slowly, steadying himself by the chairs, the wall, by anything solid within reach.

He did not look much like the very self-assured, healthy specimen of young manhood whom Mary V could bully and tease and talk to without constraint.
She felt as though she scarcely knew this thin, pale young man with the bandaged head and the somber eyes.

He seemed so aloof, as though his spirit walked alone in dark places where she could not follow.
After that she did not mention stolen horses, nor thieves, nor airplanes, nor anything that could possibly lead his thoughts to those taboo subjects.

Under that heavy handicap conversation lagged.

There seemed to be so little that she dared mention! She would sit and prattle of school and shows and such things, and tell him about the girls she knew; and half the time she knew perfectly well that Johnny was not listening.