He had a sense of having received carte blanche for the expenditure of his wits.
Bernard liked to feel his intelligence at play; this is, perhaps, the highest luxury of a clever man.

It played at present over the whole field of Angela Vivian's oddities of conduct--for, since his visit in the afternoon, Bernard had felt that the spectacle was considerably enlarged.

He had come to feel, also, that poor Gordon's predicament was by no means an unnatural one.

Longueville had begun to take his friend's dilemma very seriously indeed.

The girl was certainly a curious study.
The evening drew to a close and the crowd of Bernard's fellow-loungers dispersed.