"You've smoked my strategy, I'm afraid." He lifted the bottle to pour her another glass, happy enough to be behind in his drinking. She almost certainly had more practice than he did. "It's a very old habit - you can sit if you like, you know - and I haven't shed it quite yet." In setting the bottle down again on the table, he'd remembered that there were, in fact, chairs. "Anyhow, I have a legion of portraits to do my gossiping for me, it seems. Things I alone know are in short supply these days."