"You make me rather old. Were we friends when I was ten?"
"Oh, bother dates! I don't count by time?"
"Really, Mr. Lane, if you were anybody else I should call this absurd. It would be flattering you and myself to call it wrong."
"Why?"
"Because that would imply you were serious."
"Would it be wrong if I were?"
"Well, it would be generally considered so, under the circumstances."
"I don't care about that. I have endured it long enough. Oh, Claudia! don't you see?"
"I suppose so," thought Claudia, "I ought to crush him at this point. I think I'll wait a little bit, though."
"See what?" she said.