"Honest" as in "straightforward," "direct" As opposed to convoluted or hard-to-interpret. Not honest as in telling the truth. If I tell you that it was about time to make an honest offer on a house, that doesn't mean that somehow you have been lying all along. The social utility argument was, in my mind, his best one. He should have been more direct about making it.

The first part was simply an expression of my bias. I owed that to the reader.

Good grief.