She had often said to her friend, Anne Anningford, when they had been talking, that she did not like elderly men; she disliked to see their hair getting thin, and their chins getting fat, and their little habits and mannerisms growing pronounced.

But here she found herself tremendously interested in one who, from all accounts, must be quite forty-five if not older, though it was true his brown colorless hair was excessively thick, and he was slight of build everywhere.
Now she felt she must turn the conversation to less personal things, so: "Zara looks very lovely to-night," she said.
"Yes," replied the financier, with an air of detaching himself unwillingly from a thrilling topic, which was, indeed, what he felt.
"Yes, and I hope some day they will be exceedingly happy." "Why do you say some day ?" Lady Ethelrida asked quickly.

"I hoped they were happy now." "Not very, I am afraid," he said.

"But you remember our compact at dinner?
They will be ideally so if they are left alone," and he glanced casually at Tristram and Laura.
Ethelrida looked, too, following his eyes.
"Yes," she said.

"I wish I had not asked her--" and then she stopped abruptly, and grew a deep pink.