“Have you any objection to my listening?”
“Oh, not at all! I trust you will not find it irksome.”
He was extravagant in his praises of her performance, but Bertha had learned to take his remarks at their true value.
He did not ask Bertha to go to the opera with him, but invited his mother instead.
“Are you going to make up a party?”
“Oh, no, I will go with you.”
“Have you asked Bertha?”
“Certainly not,” he replied. “I have asked her to accompany me on several occasions, but she has always refused; I presume at your instigation. To speak plainly, I do not care whether she goes with us to the opera or not.”
He knew that this would pique his mother.