'No, sometimes I don't. And then I want you to agree with me. No-one sympathises really so well as you, Charles.'
'Not even Miss Yeo?'
'No, I get on so well with Anne because she doesn't She's always interested, but I prefer her never to agree with me, as she lives here. It would be enervating to have someone always there and perpetually sympathetic. Anne is a tonic.'
'You need a little opposition to keep you up,' said Sir Charles.
'Didn't I once hear something about his being devoted to someone? Wasn't there a report that he was going to be married to a Mrs. Raymond?'
'I believe it was once contradicted in the Morning Post that he was engaged to her,' said Sir Charles. 'But I'm sure there's no truth in it. I know her.'
'No truth in the report? Or the contradiction?'
'In either. In anything.'
'So you know her. What's she like?' Hyacinth asked anxiously.
'Oh, a dear, charming creature—you'd like her; but not pretty, nor young. About my age,' he said.