Her intimacy with Miss Bretherton had not gone far before the subject of 'Mr.Kendal's interesting sister' had been introduced, and on this particular afternoon, as Kendal entered her drawing-room, his ear was caught at once by the sound of Marie's name.
Miss Bretherton drew him impulsively into the conversation, and he found himself describing his sister's mode of life, her interests, her world, her belongings, with a readiness such as he was not very apt to show in the public discussion of any subject connected with himself.

But Isabel Bretherton's frank curiosity, her kindling eyes and sweet parted lips, and that strain of romance in her which made her so quickly responsive to anything which touched her imagination, were not easy to resist.

She was delightful to his eye and sense, and he was as conscious as he had ever been of her delicate personal charm.

Besides, it was pleasant to him to talk of that Parisian world, in which he was himself vitally interested, to any one so naive and fresh.

Her ignorance, which on the stage had annoyed him, in private life had its particular attractiveness.