"Sehr gut," he echoed, preening over the praise. The words may have been tempered, but her expression was enough of a compliment in itself. He'd been able to follow her remarks, too, though only just.

"It was a deliciously fortuitous doubling," he remarked as the dance began, then wondered if this might come across as though he were pleased with her misfortune rather than with his own luck at having found such a fitting word. "That is," he added, once the steps of the dance had seen them briefly part and then return together, "That it seemed a word too well-fit to circumstance. But it is sehr gut for me that niemand versteht Deutsch, isn't it? Forgive my intemperance, my dear lady?"

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