"It was pretty awful, toward the end," she said, giving him a look of genuine sympathy. It was hard enough being in Deerington. But to arrive when it was at its worst sounded absolutely awful.

Not an adjustment she imagines she could have made gracefully.

The fact that he hasn't been turned completely sour--or so it seems--spoke well to this man's character.

"I'm Airy, by the way," she said. "Well, Ariadne. But no one here really calls me that."