But having washed his hands at a pump in the scullery, and dried them on a roller-towel--with no sense that the apparatus was deficient--he tucked his hat under his arm and, handling his snuff-box, tripped after her as hastily as vanity and an elegant demeanour permitted.
He found her in the act of joining, with an air of vast condescension, a party of three; two of whom her stately salute had already frozen in their places.

These two, a slight perky man of middle age, and a frightened rustic-looking woman in homely black--who, by the way, sat with her mouth, open and her knife and fork resting points upward on the table--could do nothing but stare.

The third, a handsome girl, very simply dressed, returned her ladyship's gaze with mingled interest and timidity.
My lady noticed this, and the girl's elegant air and shape, and set down the other two for her duenna and her guardian's man of business.

Aware that Sir George Soane had no sister, she scented scandal, and lost not a moment in opening the trenches.
'And how far have you come to-day, child ?' she asked with condescension, as soon as she had taken her seat.
'From Reading, madam,' the girl answered in a voice low and restrained.
Her manner was somewhat awkward, and she had a shy air, as if her surroundings were new to her, But Lady Dunborough was more and more impressed with her beauty, and a natural air of refinement that was not to be mistaken.
'The roads are insufferably crowded,' said the peeress.

'They are intolerable!' 'I am afraid you suffered some inconvenience,' the girl answered timidly.
At that moment Mr.Thomasson entered.