"It must have seemed very bad to you."
"No, no—"
"Do you think it was passable?"
"Oh, signora, I never heard anything like it."
"Oh, you naughty flatterer," she said, smiling with delight. "I am sure you don't mean it."
"Indeed I do."
I was sitting next the Disagreeable Woman.
"The Count has more brains than I thought," she said. "I quite agree with him."
"That you never heard anything like it?" I queried, smiling.