"We've come to ask a very, very great favor."
She felt her eyes and mouth as round as an astonished child's, she touched her bosom delicately with outspread fingers.
"A favor? Of me?"
"We've been chosen as a committee to beg, bribe, or otherwise cajole you into giving a reading from your poems for the edification and delight of your fellow passengers."
"Please say you will!"
"Everyone wants to hear you!"
"We won't take no for an answer."
"Oh, thank you for wanting me to—but I can't! No, I can't!"
"Oh, please!"
"I tremble to think of the fate of the committee if it ventures to withdraw without your promise."
"Oh, but if you only knew how it terrifies me! No, no, I really can't!"
"Just think of the pleasure you'll be giving."
