"No, I mean to pin myself down here, and dig like a mole, for the next ten months, at least."
"If I had not had ocular proof of what a determined dig you can be, I should set down your studies as mere humbug."
"But I wish to hear the news."
"I would tell it willingly, if I knew any."
"Have the Primroses come home from Europe yet?"
"Yes."
"And the Everills?"
"I believe not."
"Nor the Leslies, I suppose."
"For a reasonably sensible and straightforward fellow, you have a queer way of making inquiries. You question like a lady's letter, with the pith in the postscript. You ask after the Primroses and the Everills, a stupid, priggish set, for whom you care nothing, as earnestly as if you were in love with them, and then grow indifferent when you come to the Leslies, whom you like."