'Of great importance.'
'Not, I hope, connected with Art. Do not talk to me about Art, if you please, Mr. Feilding—not about any kind of Art.'
He bowed gravely. 'One cannot always listen to conversation involving canons and first principles,' he said, with much condescension. 'Let me, however, congratulate you on the promise of your protégés, Archie and Effie Wilmot.'
'They are clever.'
'They are distinctly clever,' he repeated, recovering his usual self-possession. 'Effie, as perhaps she has told you, has been my pupil for a long time.'
'She has told me, in fact, something about her relations to you.'
'Yes.' The man was preoccupied and rather dense by nature. Therefore he caught only imperfectly these side meanings in Armorel's replies. 'Yes—quite so—I have been able to be useful to her, and to her brother also—very useful, indeed, happily.'
'And to—to others—as well—very useful, indeed,' Armorel echoed.
He understood that there was some kind of menace in these words. But the very air, this morning, was full of menace. He passed them by.
'It is a curious coincidence that you should also have taken up this interesting pair. It ought to bring us closer.'