eed, but one must confess that she had her eyes open. Would
it not be well for united Wanley to let her know its opinion of such
doings?

In the meantime Richard was enjoying himself, with as little thought of
the Wanley gossips as of--shall we say, the old curtained pew in Wanley
Church? He was perfectly aware that the Walthams did not represent the
highest gentility, that there was a considerable interval, for example,
between Mrs. Waltham and Mrs. Westlake; but the fact remained that he
had never yet been on intimate terms with a family so refined. Radical
revolutionist though he was, he had none of the grossness or obstinacy
which would have denied to the _bourgeois_ household any advantage
over those of his own class. At dinner he found himself behaving
circumspectly. He knew already that the cultivated taste objects to the
use of a table-knife save for purposes of cutting; on the whole he saw
grounds for the objection. He knew, moreover, that manducation and
the absorption of fluids must be performed without audible gusto; the
knowledge cost him some self-criticism. But there were numerous minor
points of convention on which he was not so clear; it had never occurred
to him, for instance, that civilisation demands the breaking of bread,
that, in the absence of silver, a fork must suffice for the dissection
of fish, that a napkin is a graceful auxiliary in the process of a meal
and not rather an embarrassing superfluity of furtive application. Like
a wise man, he did not talk much during dinner, devoting his mind to
observation. Of one thing he speedily became aware, namely, that Mr.
Alfred Waltham was so very much in his own house that it was not wholly
safe to regard his demeanour as exemplary. Another point well
certified was that if any person in the world could be pointed to as
an unassailable pattern of comely behaviour that person was Mr. Alfred
Waltham's sister. Richard observed Adela as closely as good manners
would allow.

Talking little as yet--the young man at the head of the table gave
others every facility for silence--Richard could occupy his thought in
many directions. Among other things, he instituted a comparison between
the young lady who sat opposite to him and someone--not a young lady, it
is true, but of the same sex and about the same age. He tried to imagine
Emma Vine seated at this table; the effort resulted in a disagreeable
warmth in the lobes of his ears. Yes, but--he attacked himself--