A little pessimism, also, she seemed to like; probably as an appeasement after hearing, and having to share, high flights.

And she was, in her queer woman's way, always reassured by his endurance of Colney's company:--she read it to mean, that he could bear Colney's perusal of him, and satiric stings.

Victor had seen these petty matters among the various which were made to serve his double and treble purposes; now, thanks to the operation of young Dudley within him, he felt them.

Preferring Fenellan's easy humour to Colney's acid, he was nevertheless braced by the latter's antidote to Dudley, while reserving his entire opposition in the abstract.
For Victor Radnor and Colney Durance were the Optimist and Pessimist of their society.

They might have headed those tribes in the country.