And by no unworthy arts.

They were delightful to him; and his power with them was based on natural sympathies and divinations that were perhaps his birthright.

His father had had the same gift.

Why deny that both his father and he had owed much to women?
What was there to be ashamed of?
His father had been one of the ablest and most respected men of his day and so far as English society was concerned, the son had no scandal, nor the shadow of one, upon his conscience.
How far did Eleanor divine him?
He raised his shoulder with a smile.
Probably she knew him better than he knew himself.

Besides, she was no mere girl, brimful of illusions and dreaming of love-affairs.