Margaret Cameron

“ Do you agree with me, Mr.—Wainwright?" There was just enough hesitation before the name to give it emphasis.
"I should rather say," unconcernedly returned the suspect, "that, being a gentleman, it is quite impossible for him to be a mountebank."
"Ah! Well, it comes to the same thing in the end. It would be an impossible thing, I repeat, for a gentleman to do. Of course there is a type of man who changes his alias—and his social position—with the need of the hour."
"Oh!" exclaimed Howard, fancying he caught the drift. "Well, that's not my man. He's all right. I know all about him. In fact!" ”

“ And she is young, but not in that sense. She's been out several seasons. I don't know a more attractive girl than Frances Brown."
"Frances!" He bent a sharp glance upon her. "Is her name Frances?"
"Yes. Why not?"
"True," carelessly; "why not? It's a common enough name. And it might as well be Hecuba, as far as I am concerned. It's me to the butler's pantry. This seems to be my day for adventures."
"Why? What else has happened?"
"Ah," darkly, "'I could a tale unfold'—but I won't! Not while your mind is divided by an unserved dinner! ”

“ She's the one thing in Beverly Brown's life that he hasn't been able to order. She's so independent that, if she were anybody else's daughter, he wouldn't let his associate with her. As it is, he comes as near adoring her as a man of his sort can. ”

“ Coffee was served on the veranda, in the furtherance of a deep scheme to engage Trumbull in chat with the women, leaving the host free to devote himself to Mr. Brown. Presently, when the two had finished both their cigars and their business chat, Howard, successful and elate, turned to the others, suggesting:
"Wouldn't you like to go down to the end of the garden to see a little kiosk sort of thing that we've been building? The lanterns aren't in yet, so it may be a bit dark, but it's our latest toy, and we like to play with it." ”

“ But everything has gone wrong all day, and now that wretched Ilma! He'll be irritated and argumentative, and he'll disagree with every single thing Rob says and convince himself irrevocably that Rob's policy is all wrong, and then he'll oppose it forevermore! You see? It looks trivial, but it isn't. It's the wreck of a man's hopes!"
"No, it isn't! Not yet! There must be a way out of this; and we'll find it, or perish in the— I'll tell you, Lady Bob! Easy! I'll buttle for you!"
"You!"
"Sure thing! I'm a bully butler!"
"Clifford Wainwright! You never in your life—"
"Yes, I have, too! ”

“ It is; though he's clever, in a way. He's taken a fancy to Rob, and I haven't shocked him out of it—yet. You know, he's interested in the new company—in fact, he's a very important director—and Rob wants to convert him to his policy before he goes away. He's going to Cuba, or South America, or somewhere, next week. So we planned this dinner—and it's Rob's last chance. Mr. Brown is most easily approached by way of his palate—and you know yourself we have a good cook. ”

“ He never makes any allowance for other people's emergencies, and is incapable of understanding that any one can differ from him on a social question and still be within the pale. His hobby is genealogy and his fetish is family. ”

“ At that moment, for the first time, her father got his eye on the butler and put up his glasses to assure himself that his sight had not tricked him.
"Y-yes," he dryly acquiesced, looking searchingly at his inattentive daughter; "the type is, as you say, somewhat—common!"
The dinner proceeded smoothly, enlivened by quips and soft laughter. The misadventures, so far as Mrs. ”

“ Why?" Howard desperately decided to try aggression.
"He resembles—strikingly resembles a man representing himself to be a gentleman and calling himself Harris, who—whom I have recently met."
"Perhaps he is a gentleman in disguise," calmly suggested Wainwright. "Bob, you may be sheltering an angel unawares."
"A gentleman never needs a disguise," significantly replied the older man.
WAINWRIGHT STRUCK A MATCH AND HELD IT BETWEEN CURVED HANDS ”