"And now," said Herr Erchardt, "I have a pleasure in store for you. The Frau Professor is going to be one of us for the afternoon. Yes," nodding graciously to the Advanced Lady. "Allow me to introduce you to each other."
We bowed very formally, and looked each other over with the eye which is known as "eagle" but is far more the property of the female than that most unoffending of birds. "I think you are English?" she said. I acknowledged the fact. "I am reading a great many English books just now - rather, I am studying them."
"Nu," cried Herr Erchardt. "Fancy that! What a bond already! I have made up my mind to know Shakespeare in his mother tongue before I die, but you, Frau Professor, should be already immersed in those wells of English thought!"
"From what I have read," she said, "I do not think they are very deep wells."
He nodded sympathetically.
"No," he answered, "so I have heard.... But do not let us embitter our excursion for our little English friend. We will speak of this another time."
Katherine Mansfield, "The Advanced Lady", 1911