The lamps lit and the curtains drawn, the room had a cosier appearance than by day.

Sypher stretched himself comfortably before the fire.
"I'm not in the way, am I ?" "Good heavens, no!" said Septimus.

"I was just thinking how pleasant it was.

I've not had a man inside my rooms since I was up at Cambridge--and then they didn't come often, except to rag." "What did they do ?" Septimus narrated the burnt umbrella episode and other social experiences.
"So that when a man comes to see me who does not throw my things about, he is doubly welcome," he explained.

"Besides," he added, after a drink of coffee, "we said something in Monte Carlo about being friends." "We did," said Sypher, "and I'm glad you've not forgotten it.