Osmond put out his left hand, without changing his attitude.
"How d'ye do?
My wife's somewhere about." "Never fear; I shall find her," said Rosier cheerfully.
Osmond, however, took him in; he had never in his life felt himself so efficiently looked at.

"Madame Merle has told him, and he doesn't like it," he privately reasoned.

He had hoped Madame Merle would be there, but she was not in sight; perhaps she was in one of the other rooms or would come later.

He had never especially delighted in Gilbert Osmond, having a fancy he gave himself airs.

But Rosier was not quickly resentful, and where politeness was concerned had ever a strong need of being quite in the right.