'My blessed'... How quickly she had picked it up! How flawlessly she employed the phrase! Flustered though she is, the girl knows how to regain her footing, and his smile broadens at her words, at her felicity for playing along.

Whatever is to come - and he could be mistaken, but Grantaire suspects that it will not be utter rejection - she is at least continuing to color this pursuit most wonderfully.

"Anything, ah, anything; please do! Speak! Command."