I walk up the steps to the door at the same time as a group of three people coming from the garden gate, a woman and two men, one of whom is none other than that same Johnson I thought I had glimpsed dreaming in solitude on a stone bench. So it was not he. Upon reflection, it could only be Lauren's fiancé swallowing his defeat, patching up the various fragments of his existence, now reduced to dust, perhaps modifying some detail in order to reach another, less unfavorable outcome, and even re-examining the points previously regarded as most positive in the new light of his sudden disgrace which casts both doubt and discredit upon them as well.