The worst of it was that she had always snubbed and ignored him.

On his first appearance--when her improvident cousin, Jack Stepney, had obtained for him (in return for favours too easily guessed) a card to one of the vast impersonal Van Osburgh "crushes"-- Rosedale, with that mixture of artistic sensibility and business astuteness which characterizes his race, had instantly gravitated toward Miss Bart.

She understood his motives, for her own course was guided by as nice calculations.

Training and experience had taught her to be hospitable to newcomers, since the most unpromising might be useful later on, and there were plenty of available OUBLIETTES to swallow them if they were not.

But some intuitive repugnance, getting the better of years of social discipline, had made her push Mr.Rosedale into his OUBLIETTE without a trial.