She smiled, too, rather vaguely.
“Is that the reason you like me, Eris?” he persisted—“because you consider me kind?”
“What do you think it is?” she murmured, still smiling a little to herself.
“I’m not certain you like me as well as you once did.”
The boy obvious, suddenly! The eternal and beloved ass that every woman is destined to meet. And forgive.
“I—think I do,” she said.
“Like me as well as you once did?”
“Yes.”
“Oh! My conversation still amuses you. But otherwise—well, I’m afraid you don’t care quite as much for me as you did, Eris.”
“Why?”—with slow lifted eyes.