Will you sit in that leather chair at the table, as you may have to take notes ?' The young man assented, expressed his gratification, and went to the chair she designated.
'But, Mr.Somerset,' she continued, from the ottoman--the width of the table only dividing them--'I first should just like to know, and I trust you will excuse my inquiry, if you are an architect in practice, or only as yet studying for the profession ?' 'I am just going to practise.

I open my office on the first of January next,' he answered.
'You would not mind having me as a client--your first client ?' She looked curiously from her sideway face across the table as she said this.
'Can you ask it!' said Somerset warmly.

'What are you going to build ?' 'I am going to restore the castle.' 'What, all of it ?' said Somerset, astonished at the audacity of such an undertaking.
'Not the parts that are absolutely ruinous: the walls battered by the Parliament artillery had better remain as they are, I suppose.

But we have begun wrong; it is I who should ask you, not you me....

I fear,' she went on, in that low note which was somewhat difficult to catch at a distance, 'I fear what the antiquarians will say if I am not very careful.