'Does Mrs. Trevalla count much one way or the other?' he asked.
But Connie had her wits about her, and saw no reason why she should pretend to be a fool.
'I know more about it than you think, Mr. Chance,' she assured him with a toss of her head, a glint of rather large white teeth, and a motion of her full but (as improved) not ungraceful figure.
'You do, by Jove, do you?' asked Beaufort, half in mockery, half in an admiration she suddenly wrung from him.
'Girls are supposed not to see anything, aren't they?'
'Oh, I dare say you see a thing or two, Miss Connie!'
His tone left nothing to be desired in her eyes; she did not know that he had not courted Trix Trevalla like that, that even his brutality towards her had lacked the easy contempt of his present manner. Why give people other than what they want, better than they desire? The frank approval of his look left Connie unreservedly pleased and not a little triumphant. He had been stand-offish before; well, mamma had never given her a 'show'—that was the word which her thoughts employed. When she got one, it was not in Connie to waste it. She leant her elbow on the mantel-piece, holding her cigarette in her hand, one foot on the fender. The figure suffered nothing from this pose.
'I don't know whether you've heard that I'm going to cut politics?—at least office, I mean. I shall stay in the House, for a bit anyhow.'
Connie did not hear the whispers of high circles; she received the news in unfeigned surprise.