He was still inclined to be surly.

But the new influence was not so easy to resist as he had imagined.

The woman before him attracted him strongly, despite the fact that he now knew her loveliness to be but mortal; despite the constant jar of her shrill voice.
"Who is Bert ?" he enquired at length, reluctantly aware that in temporising he signed away his freedom of action.
"Bert's my cousin," she answered.

"He's English right through.

You'd like Bert.