[It may not be evident yet that coaxing Marcus to smile is a victory for Julius, but it likely will eventually become so. For now, he takes the microexpression with good grace and listens.]
How so?
[He can think of a variety of ways it might be, but he's curious which ones Marcus, in particular, is thinking of. He's not as shocked as he might be that Marcus has let relatively few people near him in that way; of the two of them, he suspects Marcus's story is closer to the average for men of their background than his own.]
no subject
How so?
[He can think of a variety of ways it might be, but he's curious which ones Marcus, in particular, is thinking of. He's not as shocked as he might be that Marcus has let relatively few people near him in that way; of the two of them, he suspects Marcus's story is closer to the average for men of their background than his own.]