"What sort of a person, then, do I look like?" she said.
He turned. She was smiling; he smiled also. "I was alluding merely to the time you named. As it happened, my aunt had mentioned to me by chance your breakfast hours."
"That was not all, I think."
"You are very good to be interested."
"I am not good; only curious. Pray tell me."
"I have so little imagination, Mrs. Winthrop, that I cannot invent the proper charming interpretation as I ought. As to bald truth, of course you cannot expect me to present you with that during a first visit of ceremony."
"The first visit will, I hope, be a long one; you must come and stay with us. As to ceremony, if this is your idea of it—"
"—What must I be when unceremonious! I suppose you are thinking," said Ford, laughing. "On the whole, I had better make no attempts. The owl, in his own character, is esteemed an honest bird; but let him not try to be a nightingale."
"Come as owl, nightingale, or what you please, so long as you come. When you do, I shall ask you again what you meant."
"If you are going to hold it over me, perhaps I had better tell you now."