He saw, in a word, that it was what it had first struck him as being--an incongruous union.

All this was a good deal for Bernard to see in the course of half a minute, especially through the rather opaque medium of a feeling of irreflective joy; and his impressions at this moment have a value only in so far as they were destined to be confirmed by larger opportunity.
"You have come a little sooner than we expected," said Gordon; "but you are all the more welcome." "It was rather a risk," Blanche observed.

"One should be notified, when one wishes to make a good impression." "Ah, my dear lady," said Bernard, "you made your impression--as far as I am concerned--a long time ago, and I doubt whether it would have gained anything to-day by your having prepared an effect." They were standing before the fire-place, on the great hearth-rug, and Blanche, while she listened to this speech, was feeling, with uplifted arm, for a curl that had strayed from her chignon.
"She prepares her effects very quickly," said Gordon, laughing gently.
"They follow each other very fast!" Blanche kept her hand behind her head, which was bent slightly forward; her bare arm emerged from her hanging sleeve, and, with her eyes glancing upward from under her lowered brows, she smiled at her two spectators.

Her husband laid his hand on Bernard's arm.
"Is n't she pretty ?" he cried; and he spoke with a sort of tender delight in being sure at least of this point.
"Tremendously pretty!" said Bernard.

"I told her so half an hour before you came in." "Ah, it was time I should arrive!" Gordon exclaimed.
Blanche was manifestly not in the least discomposed by this frank discussion of her charms, for the air of distinguished esteem adopted by both of her companions diminished the crudity of their remarks.