The most initiated observer of all would have been poor Mr.
Longdon, in that case destined, however, to be also the most defeated, with the sign of his tension a smothered "Ah if he doesn't do it NOW!" Well, Vanderbank didn't do it "now," and the odd slow irrelevant sigh he gave out might have sufficed as the record of his recovery from a peril lasting just long enough to be measured.

Had there been any measure of it meanwhile for Nanda?
There was nothing at least to show either the presence or the relief of anxiety in the way in which, by a prompt transition, she left her last appeal to him simply to take care of itself.

"You haven't denied that Harold does borrow." He gave a sound as of cheer for this luckily firmer ground.

"My dear child, I never lent the silly boy five pounds in my life.

In fact I like the way you talk of that.