Even Mr.Mangan, who was not an observant man, was conscious that a certain hardness, almost arrogance of speech and manner, seemed temporarily to have left his patron.
"I can't tell you, Sir Everard," he said, as he sipped his first glass of wine, "what a pleasure it is to me to see, as it were, this recrudescence of an old family.

If I might be allowed to say so, there's only one thing necessary to round the whole business off, as it were." "And that ?" Dominey asked unthinkingly.
"The return of Lady Dominey to health.

I was one of the few, you may remember, privileged to make her acquaintance at the time of your marriage." "I paid a visit this morning," Dominey said, "to the doctor who has been in attendance upon her since her marriage.

He agrees with me that there is no reason why Lady Dominey should not, in course of time, be restored to perfect health." "I take the liberty of finishing my glass to that hope, Sir Everard," the lawyer murmured.
Both glasses were set down empty, only the stem of Dominey's was snapped in two.

Mr.Mangan expressed his polite regrets.
"This old glass," he murmured, looking at his own admiringly, "becomes very fragile." Dominey did not answer.