Feelings she could not voice were beating at her lips, and yet she knew that without her conscious will she had expressed her astonishment and pleasure.

It was, indeed, doubtful whether any after speech or explanation would as clearly satisfy both hearts as did that momentary flash from soul to soul of mutual remembrance and interest.
"I thought I'd give you a surprise," said Mrs.Rawdon delightedly.

"You didn't know the Tyrrel-Rawdons had a branch in America, did you?
We are a bit proud of them, I can tell you that." And, indeed, the motherly lady had some reason.

John Thomas was a handsome youth of symmetrical bone and flesh and well-developed muscle.
He had clear, steady, humorous eyes; a manner frank and independent, not to be put upon; and yet Ethel divined, though she could not have declared, the "want" in his appearance--that all-overish grace and elasticity which comes only from the development of the brain and nervous system.

His face was also marred by the seal of commonness which trade impresses on so many men, the result of the subjection of the intellect to the will, and of the impossibility of grasping things except as they relate to self.