His utter loneliness was pierced at last.

艾伦内心的孤独，终于被打破了。

It was difficult to make friends with an older boy from another house. Nor was Alan good at conversation. But he found an entrée in mathematics. 'During the term Chris and I began setting one another our pet problems and discussing our pet methods.' It would be impossible to separate the different aspects of thought and feeling. This was first love, which Alan would himself come to regard as the first of many for others of his own sex. It had that sense of surrender ('worshipped the ground he trod on'), and a heightened awareness, as of brilliant colour bursting upon a black and white world. ('He made everyone else seem so ordinary.') At the same time, it was most important that Christopher Morcom was someone who took scientific ideas seriously. And gradually, though always with considerable reserve, he took Alan seriously. ('My most vivid recollections of Chris are almost entirely of the kind things he said to me sometimes.') So these elements were all present, and had the effect of giving Alan reason to communicate.

要和比自己大的男孩交朋友，不是件容易的事，艾伦并不擅长交谈，但他在数学上找到了突破口。“这学期，克里斯和我列出了我们喜欢的问题，还一起讨论我们喜欢的方法。”他是艾伦的初恋，艾伦自己认为，这是他诸多同性爱人中的第一个。他有被征服感（“崇拜他踩过的泥土”），还有仰视感，他就像一抹鲜艳的色彩，在黑白世界里喷薄（“他让别人看起来如此单调”）。最重要的是，克里斯朵夫是一个很严肃地对待科学的人。渐渐地，他对艾伦也认真起来了，虽然还是有点拘谨。（“克里斯给我留下的最清楚的回忆，就是他对我说的那些亲热的话。”）所有这些因素凑到一起，让艾伦有了沟通的理由。

Before and after Eperson's classes Alan might talk to Christopher about relativity, or might show him other pieces of work. He had, for example, calculated π to thirty-six decimal places at about this time, perhaps making use of his own series for the inverse tangent function, and being much annoyed to find an error in the last decimal place. After a time, Alan found another opportunity to see Christopher. By accident he discovered that during a certain period on Wednesday afternoons set for private study, Chris went to the library and not to his house. (Ross did not allow boys to work unsupervised, fearing the sexual potential in unregulated associations.) 'I so enjoyed Chris' company there, ' wrote Alan, 'that ever since I always used to go to the library instead of my study.'

在爱普森的课间，艾伦有时会和克里斯朵夫讨论相对论，有时会给他看自己的其它成果。比如，他用自己的反正切级数，计算圆周率到小数第36位，然后生气地发现，最后一位算错了。过了一阵，艾伦又找到另外一个与克里斯同处的机会，他偶然发现，在每周三下午有段时间，克里斯会去图书馆，而不是回宿舍。（本来罗斯不允许男孩们在无人监督的情况下学习，他担心无约束的交往可能会导致性行为）艾伦写道：“那里有克里斯的陪伴，我十分享受，从此我总是去图书馆，而不是回到自己的书房。”