His mother meanwhile, recovering herself, had begun to ejaculate on the prints in Aggie's arms, and he was then diverted from the sense of what he "personally," as he would have said, couldn't have stood, by a glance at Lord Petherton's trophy, for which he made a prompt grab.

"The bone of contention ?" Lord Petherton had let it go and Harold remained arrested by the cover.

"Why blest if it hasn't Van's name!" "Van's ?"--his mother was near enough to effect her own snatch, after which she swiftly faced the proprietor of the volume.

"Dear man, it's the last thing you lent me! But I don't think," she added, turning to Tishy, "that I ever passed such a production on to YOU." "It was just seeing Mr.Van's hand," Aggie conscientiously explained, "that made me think one was free--!" "But it isn't Mr.Van's hand!"-- Mrs.Brook quite smiled at the error.
She thrust the book straight at Mr.Longdon.

"IS that Mr.Van's hand ?" Holding the disputed object, which he had put on his nippers to glance at, he presently, without speaking, looked over these aids straight at Nanda, who looked as straight back at him.