But the audacity of Reverend Finch--persisting to our faces in the assumption that he had been the first to discover our neighbor, and that Lucilla and I were perfectly incapable of understanding and appreciating Oscar, unassisted by him--was entirely without a parallel in my experience.

I asked myself what his conduct in this matter--so entirely unexpected by Lucilla, as well as by me--could possibly mean.

My knowledge of his character, obtained through his daughter, and my memory of what we heard him say on the other side of the wall, suggested that his conduct might mean--Money.
We assembled in the sitting-room.
The only person among us who was quite at his ease was Mr.Finch.

He never let his daughter and his guest alone for a single moment.

"My child, show Mr.Dubourg this; show Mr.Dubourg that.