"Oh, quite!" said he.
"Have you ever been in Holland?"
"Yes, once."
"What was it like?" she asked.
That was a form of question they had agreed to hate—once, long ago.
"Oh, extremely pleasant," he said warmly. "We met some most agreeable people at some of the hotels. Quite the best sort of people, you know."
Another phrase once banned by both.
The sun sparkled on the moving duckweed of the canal. The sky was blue overhead. Here and there a red-roofed farm showed among the green pastures. Ahead the avenues tapered away into distance, and met at the vanishing point. Elizabeth smiled for sheer pleasure at the sight of two little blue-smocked children solemnly staring at the boat as it passed. Then she glanced at him with an irritated frown. It was his turn to smile.
"You called the tune, my lady," he said to himself, "and it is you shall change it, not I."