Eric gave a little grunt.
Mrs Balderson sometimes found her son’s grunts irritating.
“Celia, of course, is a sweet little thing,” she proceeded; “but nothing in her.”
Mrs Balderson was not a worldly mother. Still she did not much want Eric to fall in love with Celia.
He grunted again.
“You are very uncivil, Eric,” she said, with a touch of asperity. “Can’t you say out what you mean? When you are like that, you make me feel you are influenced by nothing but commonplace, masculine contradiction.”
“Perhaps so,” he replied.