It is now Val's turn to scoff. His scoff is not so signature as Wysteria's. One might hear it in a room of other likely scoffers and not immediately select him as its source. And certainly he exercises it rather less than Wysteria, who is so practiced at scoffing she might claim it as a title--the Scoffer--or enter into some sort of competition to prove herself the best at it, which would be rather beneath her and not likely to happen, even if such a competition did exist.

"Really! It is not so," and he drops out of his accent long enough to imitate her, "very small. It is of a perfectly adequate proportion. Could it be larger? Doubtless. Could it be smaller? One should hope not, or no real work could get done at all. But so very small is entirely false to say of it. What reason have you to hold an opinion on it in the first place?"