Aware of his perfect manner of speaking, Hal lifts his chin a sharp degree higher, holding himself up properly. Five hundred years and change, obviously, is plenty of time to perfect one's enunciations and syllables. As well, he is, of course, a dignified gentleman and would never stoop to slumming his words. "American?" he clarifies, though he doesn't feel in control enough to stop organizing the books.

"I was in the United States for a time. California," he says. "I'm afraid I couldn't manage to stay very long." Nor did he wish to. He had been eager to get back to proper business, at the time, and the dog-fights were best run across the pond.