'You're looking tired,' he said.
'I feel tired.' She paused. 'I overdid it in the city.'
'It?'
'Dancing.'
'Oh, dancing. Did you dance much?'
'Yes; a great deal.'
'Ah!'
A promising, even a dashing start. But how to continue? For the first time Henry regretted the steady determination of his methods with the Encyclopaedia. How pleasant if he could have been in a position to talk easily of Dancing. Then memory reminded him that, though he had not yet got up to Dancing, it was only a few weeks before that he had been reading of the Ballet.
'I don't dance myself,' he said, 'but I am fond of reading about it. Did you know that the word "ballet" incorporated three distinct modern words, "ballet", "ball", and "ballad", and that ballet-dancing was originally accompanied by singing?'
It hit her. It had her weak. She looked at him with awe in her eyes. One might almost say that she gaped at Henry.