"Then I shall have to make sure I do plenty to hear it. Life can be terribly dross without genuine laughter don't you agree." he allowed himself a laugh of his own before very rapidly cutting himself off as he suddenly remembered where he was and an older lady eyed him suspiciously as he walked past a statue depicting yet more volcano victims.

He blushed a little and leaned into the woman conspiratorially "Have you bewitched me, Miss Scrimgeour? In your company, it seems all too easy to forget one's self." he complimented her as the closeness gave him a brief sample of her perfume which was certainly not unpleasant. "I shall have to save my best amusement for when I come to call on you?" The inflexion was a thinly veiled query about whether she would consider that an option given what she already knew of him. He hoped it was but it was always so easy to find a woman's behaviour to be approachable only because society commanded her to seem available to every man.