CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH.
CLOSE ON IT.
THE object of the invasion of the library by the party in the garden appeared to be twofold.
Sir Patrick had entered the room to restore the newspaper to the place from which he had taken it.

The guests, to the number of five, had followed him, to appeal in a body to Geoffrey Delamayn.

Between these two apparently dissimilar motives there was a connection, not visible on the surface, which was now to assert itself.
Of the five guests, two were middle-aged gentlemen belonging to that large, but indistinct, division of the human family whom the hand of Nature has painted in unobtrusive neutral tint.

They had absorbed the ideas of their time with such receptive capacity as they possessed; and they occupied much the same place in society which the chorus in an opera occupies on the stage.

They echoed the prevalent sentiment of the moment; and they gave the solo-talker time to fetch his breath.
The three remaining guests were on the right side of thirty.