"Or yourself to the conversation of a person like me."
"Oh! I have told you, over and over again, I am delighted to have seen you; and I like your conversation amazingly: you are very different indeed from what I expected."
"In Heaven's name, what did you expect?" I said. "Who ever spoke of me to you, that knew me?"
"Nobody that knew you; but you are a good deal spoken of, notwithstanding. I was curious to see if they were correct."
"And what did they say? I will endeavour to correct them if they are mistaken."
"They said you and your father moped so continually in the old house, that you had grown (like Quasimodo) to have a resemblance to brick and mortar yourselves. I expect to see you like a gable-end, with a couple of mullioned windows for eyes, and a mouth. I was astonished to see you so nearly human."
"Ah! you will humanize me still more if you laugh at me as you do; do take pity on me, and don't let me settle down into a wall."
"With all my heart, for I have no turn for architecture; and, by all the descriptions I hear of the old court, you don't seem to be Palladios."
"There may be other reasons besides a want of skill and inclination," I said, with a sad feeling of the anti-architectural condition of our exchequer.