❛ ah, and having a moment to speak, you do take full advantage of the opportunity. ❜ to insult him, that is, and not to answer his very simple question. and if she thinks he hasn't noticed... ❛ I protest your use of the word bark. a dog barks, my dear. I do not. ❜ and she might well be the first and only to apply such a... unseemly descriptor to his voice.
and that doesn't even begin to address the matter of him coloring. good god. with no effort to suppress a sigh of a rather unduly dramatic nature, he at last concedes, ❛ well, since your ability to insult me seems to remain at full force, I suppose I shall have to accept that as sufficient answer to my question. ❜ unless she would care to deign to offer him a proper one, but he might well be waiting even into his own old age for such a thing. finally, he grants her the space she'd requested earlier and rises to his feet, though his gaze lingers, as if seeking any evidence that she is, in fact, not fine.