Henry senses when he is being smugged at; back in the days when he was first working at BU and hadn't learned how to hide his reaction to the insane pointless opulence in which the majority of his colleagues flourished. They'd look at him like they expected something, and he didn't know how to tell them he was just aghast that anyone could spend so much money on, say, a carpet.

This is functional, however, and markedly different. He doesn't mind letting the fact that he's awed show through. "And that's your history, isn't it?"

(It is a reasonably good guess; he's just not positive on the place name.)