George Stott

“ She had had the advantage of Norman in previous preparation, but he was always master of any feelings he might have, and it was in the calmest of his calm tones that he replied:
"I never forget faces or voices, Mrs. Newton, and I am past being surprised at anything. I congratulate my friend Newton on being a still more fortunate man than I thought him." ”

“ One comfort is, though, that you can't well be in love with one another at present, for he to my certain knowledge has been épris with a dozen women since he can have set eyes on you; and you, by all accounts, are devoted to your husband and children. And if you hate one another, it does not much matter, for you each of you have too much taste to show it offensively.
I sat by Mrs. Newton at luncheon, and once or twice ventured to allude to her previous acquaintance with Norman—for I always like understanding the "lie" of a country. ”

“ Good fellow, Newton—very; but I should hardly have thought the man to inspire a grande passion. But then, one man never does give another credit for being able to do that. At this moment Newton and Norman entered the room side by side. The rector was a tall man, light-haired, and large-limbed, somewhat loosely hung. His face was the very personification of honesty and genial good-nature, but it lacked the distinction that belonged to Norman's. ”

“ Of course we demolished such a manifestly untenable proposition in no time."
"No doubt," laughed I; "but such amazing energy of self-assertion is something quite new for Stillbrook."
"Isn't it odd?" said Norman, musingly; "it seems so obviously the final cause of Stillbrook to provide yachts and such things for men like Scarsdale and me, who can't keep them ourselves, that it quite shocks one to see a man flying in the face of Providence in that way. I believe Scarsdale urged this very forcibly after I had gone, but failed to make any impression. His heart was hardened." ”

“ Moreover, even when, as with Jane, he had no desire of conquest, he had trodden the war-path too long to be able so to violate its principles as to force upon the woman you are talking to the conviction that she is second in your thoughts. "Women," he would say, "are no doubt often very fond of each other. Their intimacies ripen to bosom friendship in twenty-four hours; and I have known cases where they have lasted three whole months. But, even with men, no one likes to think himself really subordinate to his friend ”

“ When he pleased, few men could be more thoroughly charming, and his social success was already considerable; but there was about him a certain cynical indifference which he could not help showing, which repelled many. He was striking, rather than lovable. Women, however, seemed to find him very attractive: somehow they always do appreciate the satanic. ”

“ He has been trying every means to get up a consuming passion any time these three years, but never came across any woman who encouraged him enough to give him a decent pretext, so now his delight is childish. But, for all that, he had no right to throw us over at the last minute."
"Why did he not send you all off, and stay behind?"
"Of course, that arrangement would have suited everybody, and so Dick Scarsdale pointed out to him; but it seems the lady is staying somewhere in North Wales, on the coast, and Stillbrook thinks the possession of a yacht will add to his attractions. ”

“ Newton. First, that I do not really like Tennyson, which is bad enough; and next, which is worse, that I feign a taste I have not, out of a base subserviency to popular opinion."
Norman's tones could be very winning when he chose. They seemed to influence Mrs. Newton now, for the mocking accent had quite died out of her voice as she answered hurriedly, playing nervously with her parasol,—
"If you really cared for poetry you would not laugh at Frank for liking the sunlight. And—and I think you do sometimes 'feign a taste you have not,' whatever you say." ”

“ I suggested to Norman to walk through the park with them, and smoke our cigars, which Mrs. Newton was good enough "rather to like." (I suspect the rector had pretty well broken her in to the weed.)
It was a lovely afternoon. Everything was bathed in that "soft lustre" which one never sees but at that time of the day at the end of September and the beginning of October. Newton was enthusiastic on "the effects;" Norman laughingly begged him to spare him. ”

“ He is one of the best old fellows going, and, to please him, I strive hard to appear interested in the rotation of crops and the fattening of cattle, and to bestow something more than an uninstructed approval on the improvements he is making in the property. ”