"Then she's a dam fool," said Ferlie with complete conviction. He was genuinely shocked.
"You must never say that of anyone, dear, even if you don't like them."
"Dad says it of mostly all peoples, whether he likes them or not."
"That's different."
"How?"
"He's grown-up."
"How can grown-ups...?"
"And he's a man," Cyprian went on, desperately aware that he was not doing very well. "Ladies don't use such words."
Then Ferlie played her trump card. "Miss Vane does," she said coldly.
Cyprian preserved a masterly silence. Good gracious! she was modern enough, of course. Muriel! There was music in her name ... and in her throat when she sang ... and in the delicate hands moving over the keys of the grand piano downstairs; for she always played to them after dinner in the evenings. She had the whitest throat he had ever seen and the most beautiful hands.