She could tell him, of course. It would probably be the obvious, most logical response, to explain that yes, it can be that bad, that determination won't get her back into school or undo the fact that she lost her virginity to a married man, that cleverness doesn't always get one anywhere, one of the reasons why she went in another direction. It reminds her of what Miss Stubbs said, asking if it was clever Jenny or pretty Jenny that David liked; she set clever Jenny aside, but she isn't sure he really cared about either one. It wasn't as if she'd been the first, knowledge that still twists something in the pit of her stomach, though at least it's also proof that it wasn't solely her own naivete that got her into such a position. Comparatively speaking, she'd been lucky. It just doesn't feel like it.

When it comes down to it, though, she just can't give all of that away and ruin this just yet (she's given too much away as it is). That doesn't mean she can lie about it, either. She'll just have to hope that a half-truth will suffice. "When I said that I'd never be able to go to Oxford because I showed up here, that wasn't... entirely the truth," she says, uncertainty in her eyes as she looks up at him, expression nothing short of apologetic. "I wasn't going to be able to go anyway. Things happened, and I -- I left school without taking my exams. Just before I showed up here, I was told that they wouldn't let me back in to repeat my final year. That was what it all came down to, at least."