He uses it unconsciously, but I think that those who trust him are not deceived." Challoner regarded her with a curious expression.

"After all," he said, "that may be true." Mrs.Foster joined them, and when, soon afterward, she and her friends left, Challoner sat alone for a long time, while the pictures faded as dusk crept into the gallery.

A man of practical abilities, with a stern perception of his duty, he was inclined to distrust all that made its strongest appeal to the senses.

Art and music he thought were vocations for women; in his opinion it was hardly fitting that a man should exploit his emotions by expressing them for public exhibition.
Indeed, he regarded sentimentality of any kind as a failing; and it had been suggested that his son possessed the dangerous gift.

One of his friends had even gone farther and hinted that Bertram should never have been a soldier; but Challoner could not agree with that conclusion.
His lips set sternly as he went out in search of Greythorpe..