"I'm rather loving it too!" She was looking at him; her nose had disappeared from the silhouette. He hadn't been able to help it; the moon had been just above her head; unknown stars all round her; the night was warm. Besides, a really manly man may condescend at times! He rather owes it to himself. . . .
She said:
"That was nice of you! You might have hinted that the rotten drive was taking you away from your so important work. . . ."
"Oh, I can think as I drive," he said. She said:
"Oh!" and then: "The reason why I'm unconcerned over your rudeness about my Latin is that I know I'm a much better Latinist than you. You can't quote a few lines of Ovid without sprinkling howlers in. . . . It's vastum, not longum . . . 'Terra tribus scopulis vastum procurrit' . . . It's alto, not caelo . . . 'Uvidus ex alto desilientis. . . .' How could Ovid have written ex caelo? The 'c' after the 'x' sets your teeth on edge."
Tietjens said:
"Excogitabo!"
"That's purely canine!" she said with contempt.
"Besides," Tietjens said, "longum is much better than vastum. I hate cant adjectives like 'vast.' . . ."
"It's like your modesty to correct Ovid," she exclaimed. "Yet you say Ovid and Catullus were the only two Roman poets to be poets. That's because they were sentimental and used adjectives like vastum. . . . What's 'Sad tears mixed with kisses' but the sheerest sentimentality!"