As he did so, his irritation diminished.
He shrugged his shoulders slightly.
"If you really have business with me," he said, "I will give you a few minutes." They crossed the street together, the woman self-possessed, negative, wholly without the embarrassment of one performing an unusual action.
Her companion felt the awakening of curiosity.

Zealously though she had, to all appearance, endeavoured to conceal the fact, she was without a doubt personable.

Her voice and manner lacked nothing of refinement.

Yet her attraction to Francis Ledsam, who, although a perfectly normal human being, was no seeker after promiscuous adventures, did not lie in these externals.

As a barrister whose success at the criminal bar had been phenomenal, he had attained to a certain knowledge of human nature.