All of a sudden, as he watched the Cavaliere, something occurred to him; it was something very odd, and it stayed his glance suddenly from again turning to Mrs.Light.His idea embarrassed him, and to carry off his embarrassment, he repeated that it was folly to suppose that his words would have any weight with Christina.
The Cavaliere stepped forward and laid two fingers on Rowland's breast.
"Do you wish to know the truth?
You are the only man whose words she remembers." Rowland was going from surprise to surprise.

"I will say what I can!" he said.

By this time he had ventured to glance at Mrs.Light.She was looking at him askance, as if, upon this, she was suddenly mistrusting his motives.
"If you fail," she said sharply, "we have something else! But please to lose no time." She had hardly spoken when the sound of a short, sharp growl caused the company to turn.

Christina's fleecy poodle stood in the middle of the vast saloon, with his muzzle lowered, in pompous defiance of the three conspirators against the comfort of his mistress.

This young lady's claims for him seemed justified; he was an animal of amazingly delicate instincts.