Sir Anthony Cross delayed coming to see me, as I thought he would, but evidently he could think of no other way of making Sibella’s acquaintance, and one evening when I was drinking tea—a habit to which I am addicted—he was shown in.
“No thanks, I never drink tea. I don’t know what people see in it.”
There was a perceptible patronage in his manner. He assumed the usual attitude of an Englishman of birth when brought into familiar intercourse with a man of whose caste he is not sure. There was no superficial fault to be found with his manner, but it was obvious to a keen perception that he presumed a gulf.
“Not tea as they make it in this country,” I answered languidly. “Tea drinking is an art. It is one of the most extraordinary facts of the latter part of the nineteenth century how readily the country exchanged China for Indian tea, and yet it is like preferring cider to champagne.” I pushed the cigars towards him. “Most men cannot appreciate tea because their palates are ruined by alcohol.”
The cigar put him in a good temper; I knew that it was something exceptional.
He was not interested in the subject of tea, but at the same time, being a gentleman, he hardly liked to make it too patent that he had come about an introduction to a woman, and that further than obtaining that introduction he was not prepared to consider our acquaintance.
“You’ve got a jolly little place here,” he said, looking round. I knew that in his heart he considered it somewhat overdone.
“I am a Jew, and as an Oriental I defy the canons of Western good taste in order to get the amount of colour necessary to my appetite.”
He did not quite follow, and I did not intend that he should. It was of no account. There were limits even to my adaptability, and I am afraid I never could have adapted myself to the idiosyncrasies of Sir Anthony Cross. I don’t think he had a single delicate sentiment in him.
After a time, and when I considered he had listened to me long enough to be sufficiently subdued, I said: “Oh, by the way, I met Holland, Mrs. Holland’s husband, you know, a few days ago.”