He said to me only the other night when I was dining with him--the night you were at Mrs.Cheston's--that he felt sorry for you; that it was not your fault, or the fault of your father--but that you both had been caught in the ebb-tide of a period." Harry laughed: "What did he mean by that ?" "I'll be hanged if I know.

You made so good a guess on the Tamerlane, that it's just occurred to me to try you on this," and St.George laughed heartily.

(St.George was adrift on the ebb-tide himself did he but know it.) Harry thought earnestly for a moment, pondering upon what the inventor could have had in his mind.

It couldn't have been politics that Mr.Horn meant; nor failure of the crops; nor the way the slaves were treated.
None of these things affected him.

Indeed none of them did he know anything of.