[Whereas Kay still looks a little apologetic. Either she's managed to forget about Archie, or he was left out of the stories entirely (though how he's shown up here in that case, she's not sure). Neither option seems to her like it could possibly be ideal.]

I always did like Bush. With all of Hornblower's melancholy, he needs someone steady with him, though. Imagination's nice, but not always that solid. [And here she's talking about Archie's friends like they're characters--which, to be fair, they are, but in front of someone who thinks of them as people even when they're not in the room? Oops.] It's really too bad they haven't shown up here. They're very good.