Such a sweet dialogue

Have been reading (on and off) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by British writer Susanna Clarke for more than a month now, but am still only halfway through the 1000 pages or so. In any case, I'm not really in a hurry to finish it, cos it's just fun to pick it up now and then to enjoy the most bizarre but highly original and entertaining contents of this ingeniously written historical + fantasy novel. That the English is (intentionally) Jane Austenish also adds to its charm... :)

Anyway, I came across a really sweet bit during my commute this morning -- a conversation btwn Jonathan Strange (one of the main characters in the book, who's a magician) and his wife after he returns from a war. This story is set in the early 1800s...

The next morning they still had not said a hundredth part of all they had to tell each other.

"Sit there," said Strange to Arabella.

"In this chair?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"So that I may look at you. I have not looked at you for three years and I have long felt the lack of it. I must supply the deficiency."

She sat down, but after a moment or two she began to smile. "Jonathan, I cannot keep my countenance if you stare at me like that. At this rate, you will have supplied the deficiency in half an hour. I am sorry to disappoint you, but you never did look at me so very often. You always had your nose in some dusty old book."

"Untrue. I had entirely forgotten how quarrelsome you are. Hand me that piece of paper. I shall make a note of it."

"I shall do no such thing," said Arabella, laughing.

Perhaps I am mad, but I thought the sentence in bold was terribly cute. :P