'And with Mr. Holwood it is the more conspicuous. When you were making inquiries about her, or passing remarks upon her, he turned hot and cold, and his lips and brow positively cried. He was thrown into a condition of abject embarrassment. I am really surprised, mother, that you did not see it. But then you see nothing which is not to your advantage, or to the glory of the Tomkin-Joneses. I saw through the man at once.'
'My dear, there is nothing to be seen in him save the perfect gentleman. Naturally he was distressed. I should take to my bed and never raise my head again if I knew that one of my daughters mispronounced her vowels or misplaced her prepositions.'
'It was not that that troubled and alarmed him.'
'What else can you mean?'
'There is some mystery concerning his relation with the Marley.'
'Sylvana, I will not listen to a word that savours of impropriety. Besides, I receive five guineas a week for Winefred.'
'Quite so, and for the sake of five guineas you shut your eyes.'
'Sylvana—you forget the respect due to me.'
'Your forget the respect due to yourself and to us, and to the name of Tomkin-Jones, of which you think more than you do of Jesse and me. I say you forget that when you harbour in your house a person whose antecedents are equivocal.'
'Equivocal! Goodness preserve me! I am known in Bath to be the very Pink of Propriety.'