Lestat does abhor loneliness. Rorschach receives a brush of wry acknowledgement from Lestat on the subject, the prelude to a digression that never comes - because Rorschach has moved onto invoking another topic that surprises Lestat into a genuine laugh, his head cocked in amazement.

"Communists?" Lestat says aloud, in the gleeful tones of someone about to indulge himself in some light unpleasantness at the expense of a pitiable other. "Here? Among us? And so uncommonly close-lipped? Why, I would have imagined this a fertile field for recruitment - they do seem to thrive where the masses huddle."

He cares not at all for human politics, and didn't even when they ought to have been of great import to him. But they have made for amusing gossip at social engagements, and one can't avoid hearing about such things on the radio.