Run and find Lily, there's a dear boy.

We are going in now." Dinner was served at a round table, and a good deal of the conversation was general.

On Maraton's left hand, however, was a lady whose horror at his presence, concealed out of deference to her host, reduced her to stolid and unbending silence.

Elisabeth, quickly aware of the fact, made swift atonement.

While the others talked all around them of general subjects, she conversed with Maraton almost in whispers, lightly enough at first, but with an undernote of seriousness always there.
Maraton would have been less than human if he had not been susceptible to the charm of her conversation.
"I cannot tell you," she declared, towards the end of the meal, "how much I am hoping from this brief visit of yours.