He did not satirize in the least.

He merely told various incidents and conversations, in a sober, serious way; but Miss De Voe was quietly amused by much of the narrative and said to herself, "I think he has humor, but is too serious-minded to yield to it." She must have enjoyed his talk for she would not let Peter go early, and he was still too ignorant of social usages to know how to get away, whether a woman wished or no.

Finally he insisted that he must leave when the clock pointed dangerously near eleven.
"Mr.Stirling," said Miss De Voe, in a doubtful, "won't-you-please" voice, such as few men had ever heard from her, "I want you to let me send you home?
It will only take a moment to have the carriage here." "I wouldn't take a horse out in such weather," said Peter, in a very settling kind of voice.
"He's obstinate," thought Miss De Voe.

"And he makes his obstinacy so dreadfully--dreadfully pronounced!" Aloud she said: "You will come again ?" "If you will let me." "Do.

I am very much alone too, as perhaps you know ?" Miss De Voe did not choose to say that her rooms could be filled nightly and that everywhere she was welcome.
"No.