Without a syllable said to her she's yet aware in every fibre of her little being of what has taken place." Edward gave a still longer space to taking this in.

"Poor little thing!" "Does she strike you as so poor," Mrs.Brook asked, "with so awfully much done for her ?" "Done by whom ?" It was as if she had not heard the question that she spoke again.

"She has got what every woman, young or old, wants." "Really ?" Edward's tone was of wonder, but she simply went on: "She has got a man of her own." "Well, but if he's the wrong one ?" "Do you call Mr.Longdon so very wrong?
I wish," she declared with a strange sigh, "that _I_ had had a Mr.Longdon!" "I wish very much you had.

I wouldn't have taken it like Van." "Oh it took Van," Mrs.Brook replied, "to put THEM where they are." "But where ARE they?
That's exactly it.

In these three months, for instance," Edward demanded, "how has their connexion profited ?" Mrs.Brook turned it over.