That a young woman should demand that a gentleman whom she described as her very dear friend should be furnished with an opportunity to make himself agreeable to another young woman, a young woman whose attention had wandered and whose charms were greater--this was an anomaly which for the moment challenged all his ingenuity of interpretation.

To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text, and to suppose that Miss Stackpole wished the gentleman invited to Gardencourt on her own account was the sign not so much of a vulgar as of an embarrassed mind.

Even from this venial act of vulgarity, however, Ralph was saved, and saved by a force that I can only speak of as inspiration.

With no more outward light on the subject than he already possessed he suddenly acquired the conviction that it would be a sovereign injustice to the correspondent of the Interviewer to assign a dishonourable motive to any act of hers.
This conviction passed into his mind with extreme rapidity; it was perhaps kindled by the pure radiance of the young lady's imperturbable gaze.

He returned this challenge a moment, consciously, resisting an inclination to frown as one frowns in the presence of larger luminaries.
"Who's the gentleman you speak of ?" "Mr.Caspar Goodwood--of Boston.