Eve de Montalais laughed the charming, low-keyed laugh of a happily diverted woman.

The lank 48-year-old, neatly garbed in a pin-stripe suit, is surprisingly low-keyed in our hour-long conversation.

Her voice was slightly monotonous, but low-keyed: as she spoke her hands clasped and unclasped each other.

It was a godless sound; one of those low-keyed, insidious outrages of Nature which are not meant to be.

And though Goldman has become a celebrity in his own right, he still exudes the low-keyed charm of a friendly neighbor talking over a fence.