It is wrong, however, to say that I _saw_ anything; my mind was in far too crude a state to direct my eyes to any purpose.

I stared about me a good deal, and got some notions of topography, and there the matter ended for the time." "The benefit came with subsequent reflection, no doubt," said Mrs.
Lessingham, who found one of her greatest pleasures in listening to the talk of young men with brains.

Whenever it was possible, she gathered such individuals about her and encouraged them to discourse of themselves, generally quite as much to their satisfaction as to her own.

Already she had invited with some success the confidence of Mr.
Clifford Marsh, who proved interesting, but not unfathomable; he belonged to a class with which she was tolerably familiar.

Reuben Elgar, she perceived at once, was not without characteristics linking him to that same group of the new generation, but it seemed probable that its confines were too narrow for him.