So one may see bulldogs, those amiable animals, suddenly disclose their tenacity.
"It's rather a blue subject," he said bluntly.
Something in Cecilia fluttered at those words.

It was like the saying of a healthy man looking at a box of pills which he did not mean to open.
Why could not she and Stephen keep that lid on, too?
And at this moment, to her deep astonishment, Stephen entered.

She had sent for him, it is true, but had never expected he would come.
His entrance, indeed, requires explanation.
Feeling, as he said, a little "off colour," Stephen had not gone to Richmond to play golf.

He had spent the day instead in the company of his pipe and those ancient coins, of which he had the best collection of any man he had ever met.

His thoughts had wandered from them, more than he thought proper, to Hilary and that girl.