Then I observed that myself had preposterously deceived me, that it wasn't like that at all.

When Mr.Tottenham joined us, Cecily and me, I saw that he listened more than he talked, with an ear specially cocked to register any small irony which might appear in my remarks to my daughter.

Naturally he registered more than there were, to make up perhaps for dear Cecily's obviously not registering any.

I could see, too, that he was suspicious of any flavour of kindness; finally, to avoid the strictures of his upper lip, which really, dear fellow, began to bore me, I talked exclusively about the distant sails and the Red Sea littoral.

When he no longer joined us as we sat or walked together, I perceived that his hostility was fixed and his parti pris.