I'd have known something about it _now_." And as he stood beside the tea-table, waiting for Marcella to entrust some tea to him for distribution, he turned and made a profound bow to his candidate cousin.
Everybody joined in the laugh, led by Wharton.

Then there was a general drawing up of chairs, and Marcella applied herself to making tea, helped by Aldous.

Wharton alone remained standing before the fire, observant and apart.
Hallin, whose health at this moment made all exertion, even a drive, something of a burden, sat a little away from the tea-table, resting, and glad to be silent.

Yet all the time he was observing the girl presiding and the man beside her--his friend, her lover.

The moment had a peculiar, perhaps a melancholy interest for him.