He was pleased with the brisk, almost brusque, manner in which he had dealt with the matter of William Roper, in his interview with Olivia.

If he had shilly-shallied and hummed and hawed about the scandal, it would have been so much more unpleasant for her.

He thought, too, that his practical, common-sense attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily, and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with William Roper.
He was smoking a cigar in a great content, when at nine o'clock Holloway brought him word that William Roper had come.

Mr.Manley bade him bring him to him at a quarter-past.

He felt that suspense would make William Roper malleable, and he intended to hammer him.