She recalled her old impression of him as one self-centred and self-sufficing, a man to whom nothing outside himself would make any tangible difference; but she recalled it without a trace of the apprehension with which it had been previously coupled.

She began indeed to dwell upon that idea of him as upon something restful, and the idea was still prominent in her mind when, a little more than a week afterwards, Drake galloped up to her one morning as she was crossing the Park.
'I have been meaning to call, Mrs.Mallinson,' he said, 'but the fact is, I have had no time.

I only got back from Bentbridge last night.' Clarice received a sudden and yet expected impression of freshness from him.

'Papa told me you were going to stand,' she replied.

'You stayed with my uncle, Captain Le Mesurier, didn't you ?' 'Yes.