"The Unitarian lady; and I knew Mark—and Rodney. They don't account for you."
"Does anybody account for anybody else?"
"Yes. You believe in heredity?"
"I don't know enough about it."
"You should read Haeckel—The History of Evolution, and Herbert Spencer and Ribot's Heredity. It would interest you…. No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't interest you a bit."
"It sounds as if it would rather."
"It wouldn't…. Look here, promise me you won't think about it, you'll let it alone. Promise me."
He was like Jimmy making you promise not to hang out of top-storey windows.
"No good making promises."
"Well," he said, "there's nothing in it…. I wish I hadn't said that about your playing. I only wanted to see whether you'd mind or not."