It's a very kind thing to say, she decides. Because otherwise she might have to think he was saying it only because he feels sorry for her, and that would be entirely unbearable. It would color the whole evening. It would make her feel very foolish and small, and that can't be his intention because Ellis would never inflict that on her.

So, yes. It's a kind sentiment. Maybe if he'd stayed for a little while, she would have been less unhappy with all her clothes, and the laces of her boots, and what she looks like with her hair gone bizarrely straight from having it down so long because there would have been other things to chatter along about.

(But maybe not. She'd had plenty of company, after all.)

She blinks very rapidly. Her laugh is automatic like the swing of a joint having had its reflex point struck, but not ungenuine.

"Maybe, yes," she says after a moment. "I'll make a note of it. For next year. —Only you would have to come along to the party then, I suppose."