"No, I don't think it, not for a moment," he says, as unimpressed by the ice as by the charm. "Do you think </i>me</i> so insensible? So tell me, Lucius, what other conclusion should I have come to, seeing you hedge repeatedly about the point and play your politician's smile on me, after I have encouraged you to form your own designs, than that someone else has suggested it? A month's exposure to convinced and charismatic persons--by whom I do not mean your wife, Lucius, as I have never met her, so there's really no point in acting as though I've been maligning her when I've stated no assumptions about her behavior whatsoever--acting according to their own long-established patterns was the least of my concerns, and as I am inclined to trust in your sense, I have so far confined myself to that conclusion."