"Did I swish you away from the flat against your will ?" "I should be a very ungrateful person if I failed to appreciate my present privileges." She shook her head disgustedly.
"You're a very annoying person!" she returned.

"You invariably take refuge in a compliment." "Dear Madame Kitty"-- Mallory leaned forward and looked down at her with his steady grey-blue eyes--"dear Madame Kitty, I say to you _what I mean_.

I do not compliment my friends"-- his voice deepened--"my dear, trusted friends." His foreign twist of phrase was unusually pronounced, as always in moments of strong feeling.
"But that's just it!" she declared emphatically.

"You're _not_ trusting me--you're keeping me outside the door." "Believe me, there's nothing you'd wish to see--the other side." "Which means that in any case it's no use knocking at a door that won't be opened," said Kitty, apparently yielding the point.

"So we'll switch off that subject and get on to the next.