“‘Scuse me?” Howell said, though he had heard her perfectly well, even when she was starting conversations with herself. In spite of her comment, his face had already screwed itself up even more, too annoyed to be abashed. So now Howell was staring at her openly, brows lowered in yet more consternation and incredulity. (A split-second beat to retract her statement, if she liked.)

But Howell was capable of getting defensive fast like the best of people, so he also pointed out, dryly: “Keep talking to yourself like that, and people’ll think you mad.”

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