"You looked lonely." Hugh smiled again. It was the sort of thing an adult would never have said aloud. And precisely the reason he'd rather have been chatting with her than anyone else in the room. "I was alone, not lonely." Frances frowned, considering that. Hugh was just about to explain the difference when she cocked her head and asked, "Are you sure?" "Alone is a state of being," he explained, "whereas lonely is--" "I know that," she cut in. He regarded her. "Then I'm afraid I do not understand your question." She cocked her head to the side. "I was just wondering if a person always knows when he is lonely."