His bored state indeed--if he was bored--prompted in him the honest impulse to clear, as he would have perhaps considered it, the atmosphere.

He indicated Mrs.Donner with a remarkable absence of precautions.
"Why, what the Duchess alludes to is my poor sister Fanny's stupid grievance--surely you know about that." He made oddly vivid for a moment the nature of his relative's allegation, his somewhat cynical treatment of which became peculiarly derisive in the light of the attitude and expression, at that minute, of the figure incriminated.

"My brother-in-law's too thick with her.

But Cashmore's such a fine old ass.
It's excessively unpleasant," he added, "for affairs are just in that position in which, from one day to another, there may be something that people will get hold of.

Fancy a man," he robustly reflected while the three took in more completely the subject of Mrs.Brookenham's attention--"fancy a man with THAT odd piece on his hands! The beauty of it is that the two women seem never to have broken off.