with that wonder, the human heart female, the part
played by a tail-coat and a composed demeanour is not insignificant.
No doubt the ladies of Brookfield would have rebutted the idea of a
tail-coat influencing them in any way as monstrous. But why was it, when
Mr. Pole again harped on his cook, in almost similar words, that they
were drawn to meet the eyes of the stranger, on whom they printed one
of the most fabulously faint fleeting looks imaginable, with a
proportionately big meaning for him that might read it? It must have
been that this uniform of a tail had laid a basis of equality for the
hour, otherwise they never would have done so; nor would he have enjoyed
the chance of showing them that he could respond to the remotest mystic
indications, with a muffled adroitness equal to their own, and so
encouraged them to commence a language leading to intimacy with a
rapidity that may well appear magical to the uninitiated. In short, the
man really had the language of the very elect of polite society. If you
are not versed in this alphabet of mute intelligence, you are in the
ranks with waiters and linen-drapers, and are, as far as ladies are
concerned, tail-coated to no purpose.

Mr. Pole's fresh allusion to his cook: "I hope you don't think I keep a
man! No; no; not in the country. Wouldn't do. Plays the deuce, you know.
My opinion is, Mrs. Mallow's as clever as any man-cook going. I'd back
her:" and Mr. Barrett's speech: "She is an excellent person!" delivered
briefly, with no obtrusion of weariness, confirmed the triumph of the
latter; a triumph all the greater, that he seemed unconscious of it.
They leaped at one bound to the conclusion that there was a romance
attached to him. Do not be startled. An attested tail-coat, clearly out
of its element, must contain a story: that story must be interesting;
until its secret is divulged, the subtle essence of it spreads an
aureole around the tail. The ladies declared, in their subsequent
midnight conference, that Mr. Barrett was fit for any society. They had
visions of a great family reduced; of a proud son choosing to earn his
bread honourably and humbly, by turning an exquisite taste to account.
Many visions of him they had, and were pleased.

Patronage of those beneath, much more than the courting of those above
them, delighted the ladies of Brookfield. They allowed Emilia to give
Mr. Barrett invitations, and he became a frequent visitor; always neat,
pathetically well