He may have the assurance of a man of fifty, yet it isn't put on; it's neither bumptious nor affected, but just as natural in Mr.Evers as shyness and awkwardness in the ordinary youth one meets.

And he has the _savoir faire_ not to ask questions!" Were we all mistaken?
Was this the way in which a designing woman would speak of the object of her designs?
Not that I thought so hardly of Mrs.
Lascelles myself; but I did think that she might well fall in love with Bob Evers, at least as well as he with her.

Was this, then, the way in which a woman would be likely to speak of the young man with whom she had fallen in love?
To me the appreciation sounded too frank and discerning and acute.

Yet I could not call it dispassionate, and frankness was this woman's outstanding merit, though I was beginning to discover others as well.

Moreover, the fact remained that they had been greatly talked about; that at any rate must be stopped and I was there to stop it.
I began to pick my words.
"It's all Eton, except what is in the blood, and it's all a question of manners, or rather of manner.