The simplest explanation is always the most likely.
Words are such uncertain things, they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do.
I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.
Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid, spinsterish face and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it all as in the day's work....where crime is concerned, she's the goods.
The first time you do a thing is always exciting.
Time is the best killer.