"Now, you see, I don't consider it cheating at all," he replies warmly, strangely comforted by both the pattern of her speech and what she has to say. He's spent a lot of years of his life not paying attention, necessarily, to what people are saying unless it involves him. It's meant that he's missed a great deal of interesting people in his time. "After all, most people here are from a more modern time, so who's to say this isn't a costume? You only know it is because you've discovered my origins, but hardly anyone else is half as curious!"

"And now you've got me equally so. Tell me about Alice," he encourages. "I'm sure it will be far more interesting than anything I have to say."