No reflection on how tolerable he was? “You might tell that to your tone,” he countered. Though Ursula’s instant aggravation at this only made him more secure in the conviction she could not wait to be rid of him again – she was trying to prod him into leaving.
Well: he could be just as perfectly intransigent, and see how she liked it. He would have to stay longer than he had planned. “Pupils return on the 4th,” Phineas declared – and while usually he would have gotten in several days of peace before they did, he might suffer to stay here instead. His lip curled, either at the thought of enduring that much time with her or at the generous gulp of wine she had just taken. “But if that is too long for you to bear my presence, you are at liberty to impose on a friend’s hospitality instead.” It would look dreadful, for her to flee her own family at Christmas – but then Ursula never deigned to make things easy.
Well: he could be just as perfectly intransigent, and see how she liked it. He would have to stay longer than he had planned. “Pupils return on the 4th,” Phineas declared – and while usually he would have gotten in several days of peace before they did, he might suffer to stay here instead. His lip curled, either at the thought of enduring that much time with her or at the generous gulp of wine she had just taken. “But if that is too long for you to bear my presence, you are at liberty to impose on a friend’s hospitality instead.” It would look dreadful, for her to flee her own family at Christmas – but then Ursula never deigned to make things easy.
