When he had tried too hard, rather than smart, and ran afoul of a no-name bookie with a coil of razor-wire and a grudge. She shook out the clothing and held one garment against her experimentally. He speaks only of strange men in distant lands and what do they think or say that concerns us.
He was more truly hers when asleep, untouched by stress, relaxed, his rib cage barely moving. After such endorsement, what bad news can there be.