There were those indeed who talked of "airs" and "mannerisms," but their faint voices were lost in the general shouting.
"Wonderful!" said Doris, at last, looking up from the last of these epistles.

"I really didn't know, Arthur, you were such a great man." Her eyes rested on him with a fond but rather puzzled expression.
"Well, of course, dear, you've always seen the seamy side of me," said Meadows, with the slightest change of tone and a laugh.

"Perhaps now you'll believe me when I say that I'm not always lazy when I seem so--that a man must have time to think, and smoke, and dawdle, if he's to write anything decent, and can't always rush at the first job that offers.

When you thought I was idling--I wasn't! I was gathering up impressions.

Then came an attractive piece of work--one that suited me--and I rose to it.