Despite her blunt answer, Tiberius was still finding this difficult to believe.
"Well — you shouldn't have encouraged them," he threw back. Presumably if she was this upset about it she hadn't openly solicited the attentions (and anyway, he didn't think she was that short-sighted — at least not anymore). Even so, he assumed she must have done something to attract or invite attention to herself if someone had made an overture of some sort. Those sorts of things didn't just happen out of the blue. A young man wouldn't choose a stranger out of a crowd and then flirt all night without any sort of encouragement from the object of his affections. Even if it had only been a look or a gesture, she had to have done something to make him feel it wasn't a complete waste of his time to try.
"Well — you shouldn't have encouraged them," he threw back. Presumably if she was this upset about it she hadn't openly solicited the attentions (and anyway, he didn't think she was that short-sighted — at least not anymore). Even so, he assumed she must have done something to attract or invite attention to herself if someone had made an overture of some sort. Those sorts of things didn't just happen out of the blue. A young man wouldn't choose a stranger out of a crowd and then flirt all night without any sort of encouragement from the object of his affections. Even if it had only been a look or a gesture, she had to have done something to make him feel it wasn't a complete waste of his time to try.