'With books, music, or—or correspondence.'
At the last word she did colour, he saw, a very little.
'Ladies have a thousand ways of passing time that men don't possess,' he added, lapsing into his habitual bearing, which in his style of man some one describes as 'gentle and resigned weariness.'
It actually seemed too much trouble to make love when the matter became serious.
There was a pause, after which, for a change of subject, Clare asked about the horse he was to run in the Derby.
'Oh! Crusader is in capital form,' said he with animation, as this was a subject to be approached with ease. 'Though neither a large nor a powerful horse, he is "blood" all over, and there is no better animal in the stud book!'
'I know that he stands high in the betting.'
'How?'
'From the racing column in the Times.'
'Ah, you take an interest in my horse, then!'