‘Yes, he confessed to have been amused with the eccentric habits and odd ways, but he was not sparing of his strictures afterwards.’
‘So that there were no “tendernesses?”’
‘Oh, I’ll not go that far. I rather suspect there were “tendernesses,” but only such as a fine gentleman permits himself amongst semi-savage peoples—something that seems to say, “Be as fond of me as you like, and it is a great privilege you enjoy; and I, on my side, will accord you such of my affections as I set no particular store by.” Just as one throws small coin to a beggar.’
‘Oh, Mr. Atlee!’
‘I am ashamed to own that I have seen something of this kind myself.’
‘It is not like my cousin Cecil to behave in that fashion.’
‘I might say, Lady Maude, that your home experiences of people would prove a very fallacious guide as to what they might or might not do in a society of whose ways you know nothing.’
‘A man of honour would always be a man of honour.’
‘There are men, and men of honour, as there are persons of excellent principles with delicate moral health, and they—I say it with regret—must be satisfied to be as respectably conducted as they are able.’
‘I don’t think you like Cecil,’ said she, half-puzzled by his subtlety, but hitting what she thought to be a ‘blot.’