"We have met, I suppose, a dozen times in our lives.

I have danced with you here and there, talked nonsense once, I remember, at a musical reception--" "I tried to flirt with you then," she interrupted.
He nodded.
"I was in the midst of a great case," he said, "and everything that happened to me outside it was swept out of my mind day by day.

What I was going to say is that I have always liked you, from the moment when your mother presented me to you at your first dance." "I wish you'd told me so," she murmured.
"It wouldn't have made any difference," he declared.

"I wasn't in a position to think of a duke's daughter, in those days.

I don't suppose I am now." "Try," she begged hopefully.
He smiled back at her.