"It is papa that is changed.

You may suppose it to be without any reason, if you please.

I would tell you to study him for yourselves, only I am convinced that these special private interviews are anything but good policy, and are strictly to be avoided, unless of course, as in the present instance, we have something directly to do." Toward dawn the ladies had decreed that it was policy to be quite passive, and provoke no word of Mrs.Chump by making any allusion to Besworth, and by fencing with the mention of the place.
As they rarely failed to carry out any plan deliberately conceived by them, Mr.Pole was astonished to find that Besworth was altogether dropped.

After certain scattered attempts to bring them upon Besworth, he shrugged, and resigned himself, but without looking happy.
Indeed he looked so dismal that the ladies began to think he had a great longing for Besworth.

And yet he did not go there, or even praise it to the discredit of Brookfield! They were perplexed.
"Let me ask you how it is," said Cornelia to Mr.Barrett, "that a person whom we know--whose actions and motives are as plain to us as though discerned through a glass, should at times produce a completer mystification than any other creature?
Or have you not observed it ?" "I have had better opportunities of observing it than most people," Mr.
Barren replied, with one of his saddest amused smiles.