They are a dreadfully encroaching sex, and perhaps being in the army makes them worse!' 'I'll give him a hint, and tell him to be careful.' 'Don't say I have definitely complained of him; it is not worth while to do that; the matter is too trifling for repetition.

Upon the whole, Charlotte, I would rather you said nothing at all.' De Stancy's hobby of photographing his ancestors seemed to become a perfect mania with him.

Almost every morning discovered him in the larger apartments of the castle, taking down and rehanging the dilapidated pictures, with the assistance of the indispensable Dare; his fingers stained black with dust, and his face expressing a busy attention to the work in hand, though always reserving a look askance for the presence of Paula.
Though there was something of subterfuge, there was no deep and double subterfuge in all this.

De Stancy took no particular interest in his ancestral portraits; but he was enamoured of Paula to weakness.

Perhaps the composition of his love would hardly bear looking into, but it was recklessly frank and not quite mercenary.