Then I racked my brains for a difficult question.
"Now," I said, "will you please tell me where Charles Towne was born?"
"Do you mean Charles A. Towne, the lawyer; Charles Wayland Towne, the author; or Charles Hanson Towne, the poet?" she demanded.
I managed to say that I meant the poet Towne.
"He was born in Louisville, Kentucky," she informed me sweetly. She even gave me the date of his birth, too, but as the poet is a friend of mine, I will suppress that.
"Is that all?" she inquired presently, seeing that I was merely gazing at her.
"Yes, you adorable creature." The first word of that sentence is all that I really uttered. I only thought the rest.
"Very well," she replied, shutting the book in which she had looked up the Townes.
"Thanks very much," I said.
"Don't mention it," said she—and went about her business in a way that sent me about mine.