"I defy you," he exclaimed, "to say!" "Well, you don't defy ME!" Mr.Cashmore cried as Mrs.Brook failed to take up the challenge.

"If you know Mitchy," he went on to Mr.Longdon, "you must know Petherton." The elder man remained vague and not imperceptibly cold.

"Petherton ?" "My brother-in-law--whom, God knows why, Mitchy runs." "Runs ?" Mr.Longdon again echoed.
Mrs.Brook appealed afresh to Vanderbank.

"I think we ought to spare him.

I may not remind you of mamma," she continued to their companion, "but I hope you don't mind my saying how much you remind me.
Explanations, after all, spoil things, and if you CAN make anything of us and will sometimes come back you'll find everything in its native freshness.