"But I hardly see--" "Hubert, you are growing dull! You were not so at Nathaniel's....

It is the lady herself who has turned up, not her nose--though I grant you THAT turns up too--the lady I require for our tour in India; the not impossible chaperon." "Her nose tells you that ?" "Her nose, in part; but her face as a whole, too, her dress, her chair, her mental attitude to things in general." "My dear Hilda, you can't mean to tell me you have divined her whole nature at a glance, by magic!" "Not wholly at a glance.

I saw her come on board, you know--she transhipped from some other line at Aden as we did, and I have been watching her ever since.

Yes, I think I have unravelled her." "You have been astonishingly quick!" I cried.
"Perhaps--but then, you see, there is so little to unravel! Some books, we all know, you must 'chew and digest'; they can only be read slowly; but some you can glance at, skim, and skip; the mere turning of the pages tells you what little worth knowing there is in them." "She doesn't LOOK profound," I admitted, casting an eye at her meaningless small features as we paced up and down.

"I incline to agree you might easily skim her." "Skim her--and learn all.