He sat opposite to her, his strong aquiline face a fine contrast to the faces of the others; he had an ease of manner which they did not possess; he talked with a quietude of his own, and he had a watchful eye and a ready smile for his daughter.
Indeed, it seemed that what she felt his guests felt too.

For they spoke to him with a certain deference, almost as if they spoke to their master.
He alone apparently noticed no unsuitability in his guests.

He sat at his ease, their bosom friend.
Meanwhile, plied with champagne by Archie Parminter, who sat upon the other side of him, "Wallie" Hine began to boast.

Sylvia tried to check him, but he was not now to be stopped.

His very timidity pricked him on to extravagance, and his boasting was that worst form of boasting--the vaunt of the innocent weakling anxious to figure as a conqueror of women.
With a flushed face he dropped his foolish hints of Mrs.This and Lady That, with an eye upon Sylvia to watch the impression which he made, and a wise air which said "If only I were to tell you all." Garratt Skinner opened a fresh bottle of champagne--the supply by now was getting low--and came round the table with it.