"He certainly takes the frankest views of other people, and expresses them." And while she played with the pearls in their box she gave a vivid account of her morning's talk with the Radical candidate for West Brookshire, and of their village expedition.
There was a certain relief in describing the scorn with which her acts and ideals had been treated; and, underneath, a woman's curiosity as to how Aldous would take it.
"I don't know what business he had to express himself so frankly," said Aldous, turning to the fire and carefully putting it together.

"He hardly knows you--it was, I think, an impertinence." He stood upright, with his back to the hearth, a strong, capable, frowning Englishman, very much on his dignity.

Such a moment must surely have become him in the eyes of a girl that loved him.

Marcella proved restive under it.
"No; it's very natural," she protested quickly.

"When people are so much in earnest they don't stop to think about impertinence! I never met any one who dug up one's thoughts by the roots as he does." Aldous was startled by her flush, her sudden attitude of opposition.