He was an intelligent, impecunious, pleasant kind of man, still, like his host, on the sunny side of forty.

Sir Lyon was "in the City," as are now so many men of his class and kind.

He took his work seriously, and spent many hours of each day east of Temple Bar.

By way of relaxation he helped to run an Oxford College East-End Settlement.

"A good chap,"-- that was how Blanche summed him up to herself.
Lionel had asked her if she could think of any young people to ask, and she had suggested, with some hesitation, her own niece, Bubbles Dunster, and Bubbles' favourite dancing partner, a young man called Bill Donnington.