"Well, I must say you're not very flattering, Mr.Becton, anyway." Becton would have liked to answer her according to her cattishness, with a good clawing sarcasm that would leave its smart in her pride; but he was being good, and he could not change all at once.

Besides, the girl's attitude under the social honor done her interested him.

He was sure she had never been in such good company before, but he could see that she was not in the least affected by the experience.

He had told her who this person and that was; and he saw she had understood that the names were of consequence; but she seemed to feel her equality with them all.
Her serenity was not obviously akin to the savage stoicism in which Beaton hid his own consciousness of social inferiority; but having won his way in the world so far by his talent, his personal quality, he did not conceive the simple fact in her case.

Christine was self-possessed because she felt that a knowledge of her father's fortune had got around, and she had the peace which money gives to ignorance; but Beaton attributed her poise to indifference to social values.