He was running out of ways to reasonably dance around her object in coming here, which was a pity. Unless he were to wax lyrical about the nature of barriers and walls — how do we really define inside, and what makes it different, at the most basic level, from out? — he couldn't think of any way to not answer her question directly, and he didn't really have the energy to pretend to be a philosopher, when he was still only midway through his coffee.

"Come inside? Oh, certainly," he said with false cheerfulness as he took a (very small) step back to allow her inside the house. "I'm sure you'll forgive the mess; we weren't prepared for such grand and illustrious visitors," he added, with thinly veiled sarcasm.