He stopped a few moments afterward, as they were going out, with his hand on the door-knob.

"You did, from your own point of view, an indiscreet thing," he said, "to tell Miss Light of my engagement." Rowland looked at him with a glance which was partly an interrogation, but partly, also, an admission.
"If she 's the coquette you say," Roderick added, "you have given her a reason the more." "And that 's the girl you propose to devote yourself to ?" cried Rowland.
"Oh, I don't say it, mind! I only say that she 's the most interesting creature in the world! The next time you mean to render me a service, pray give me notice beforehand!" It was perfectly characteristic of Roderick that, a fortnight later, he should have let his friend know that he depended upon him for society at Frascati, as freely as if no irritating topic had ever been discussed between them.

Rowland thought him generous, and he had at any rate a liberal faculty of forgetting that he had given you any reason to be displeased with him.

It was equally characteristic of Rowland that he complied with his friend's summons without a moment's hesitation.

His cousin Cecilia had once told him that he was the dupe of his intense benevolence.