"Yes," he said, "I did."
"You were going down town, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"On business?"
"Yes," he said, bewildered.
"I wonder," she said timidly, "if you would tell me what that business was? Do you mind? Because, really, I don't mean to be impertinent."
He made an effort to reflect. It was difficult to reflect and to keep his eyes on her but also it is impolite to converse with anybody and look elsewhere. This he had been taught at his mother's knee—and sometimes over it.
"My business down town," he said very slowly, "was with an officer of the Smithsonian Institution who had come on from Washington to see something which I had brought with me from Florida."
"Would you mind telling me what it was you brought with you from Florida?" she asked wistfully.
"No. It was malaria."