"And then it's so painfully proper and respectable. Look at those ridiculous trees in their petticoats. English to a degree."
"Ah!—if you've been abroad——"
"I haven't been abroad."
"Proud insular boast!"
"I wasn't boasting. I was stating a fact."
"Well, you've some cause to boast. Not to have been abroad is distinction nowadays."
"If it comes to that I've never been out of this county, except to London now and then. You wouldn't think it."
He smiled, for it happened to be precisely what he had thought. It explained her somehow; he recognized in Miss Tancred the incurable provincial. To be sure, her sentiments were somewhat at variance with her character, an inconsistency not unusual in woman. All he said was, "It is a little extraordinary." He was wondering when she was going to go. She did not go.
"I'm glad you've discovered something to do here. It must be so deadly dull."
He found relief in ambiguity. "I am never dull"; adding irrelevantly, "it's a glorious view."