"Why did you put your hand over your mouth?"
"To keep myself from—"
"Laughing at me?"
"Kissing you. You looked so sorry because sailors only sail round duckponds, when you thought they always sailed out by the West and home by the East. You believed the duckponds."
"I didn't really."
"For a moment!"
"I felt so stupid."
"You blushed."
"Oh, did I?"
"A very little. Like the inside of a shell. I'd always tease you to make you blush like that. Don't you ever smile or laugh, child?"