He knew to the full, on what he had just extracted from Miss Gostrey, Chad's marks of alertness; but they were a reason the more for not dawdling.

If he was himself moreover to be treated as young he wouldn't at all events be so treated before he should have struck out at least once.

His arms might be pinioned afterwards, but it would have been left on record that he was fifty.

The importance of this he had indeed begun to feel before they left the theatre; it had become a wild unrest, urging him to seize his chance.

He could scarcely wait for it as they went; he was on the verge of the indecency of bringing up the question in the street; he fairly caught himself going on--so he afterwards invidiously named it--as if there would be for him no second chance should the present be lost.