"He hasn't really been sick," she asseverated with what she knew, as she said it, to be wholly unnecessary emphasis.
The young Austrian performed one of his ceremonious obeisances.
"Then I shall be so pleased, so honoured, this evening to be presented to him, and I so deeply regret his having been ill. It is not good, this ocean, for the elderly."
Muriel's cheeks warmed.
"Why do you call him that?" she demanded. "I told you yesterday that he was—that he was almost young. Why do you call him elderly?"
"Forgive." Von Klausen's wide gesture expressed his regret for this error. "I had forgotten entirely. It is too bad of me to forget entirely."
"Oh," laughed Muriel, for she was already condemning her annoyance as childishness, "it doesn't matter, because it is so absurd. Only, what gave you such an impression?"
"Please?"
"The impression that he was elderly: what gave you that?"
Von Klausen manifestly hesitated.