Her interlocutor looked at her with all his bright brutality. "Oh my
dear, I can speak for you--if THAT'S what you want!"

The Duchess met his eyes, and so for an instant they sounded each other.
"You're so abysmally coarse that I often wonder--!" But as the door
reopened she caught herself. It was the effect of a face apparently
directed at her. "Be quiet. Here's old Edward."

BOOK THIRD. MR. LONGDON

If Mitchy arrived exactly at the hour it was quite by design and on a
calculation--over and above the prized little pleasure it might give
him--of ten minutes clear with his host, whom it rarely befell him to
see alone. He had a theory of something special to go into, of a
plummet to sink or a feeler to put forth; his state of mind in short
was diplomatic and anxious. But his hopes had a drop as he crossed
the threshold. His precaution had only assured him the company of a
stranger, for the person in the room to whom the servant announced
him was not old Van. On the other hand this gentleman would clearly be
old--what was it? the fellow Vanderbank had made it a matter of such
importance he should "really know." But were they then simply to have
tea there together? No; the candidate for Mr. Mitchett's acquaintance,
as if quickly guessing his apprehension, mentioned on the spot that
their entertainer would be with them: he had just come home in a
hurry, fearing he was late, and then had rushed off to make a change.
"Fortunately," said the speaker, who offered his explanation as if he
had had it on his mind--"fortunately the ladies haven't yet come."

"Oh there ARE to be ladies?"--Mr. Mitchett was all response. His fellow
guest, who was shy and apparently nervous, sidled about a little,
swinging an eye-glass, yet glancing in a manner a trifle birdlike from
object to object. "Mrs. Edward Brookenham I think."

"Oh!" Mitchy himself felt, as soon as this comment had quitted his lips,
that it might sound even to a stranger like a sign, such as the votaries
of Mrs. Edward Brookenham had fallen into the way of constantly throwing
off, that he recognised her hand in the matter. There was, however,
something in his entertainer's face that somehow encouraged frankness;
it had the sociability of surprise--it hadn't the chill. Mitchy saw
at the same time that this friend of old Van's would never really
understand him; though that was a thing he at times liked people as much
for as he liked them little for it at others. It was