So when she came in, a little late as usual, in her long, soft, gray dress, with a pink rose at her girdle, looking far more feminine than Mrs.Baxter, about whom Adelaide's offensive adjective "upholstered" still clung, he felt the full effect of her appearance.

He even enjoyed the obviously suspicious glance which Mrs.Baxter immediately afterward turned upon him.
At dinner things began well.

They talked about people and events of which Mrs.Wayne knew nothing, but her interest and good temper made her not an outsider, but an audience.

Anecdotes which even Mr.Lanley might have felt were trivial gossip became, through her attention to them, incidents of the highest human interest.

Such an uncritical interest was perhaps too stimulating.
He expected nothing dangerous when, during the game course, Mrs.Baxter turned to him and asked how Mathilde had enjoyed what she referred to as "her first winter." Mr.Lanley liked to talk about Mathilde.