In fact as it was I think I could have done this in time had I not been checked by a curiosity stronger still than my impulse.

There were three seconds during which I saw the young man and yet let him come on.

Didn't I make the quick calculation that if he didn't catch what Flora was doing I too might perhaps not catch it?
She at any rate herself took the alarm.

On perceiving her companion's nearness she made, still averted, another duck of her head and a shuffle of her hands so precipitate that a little tin steamboat she had been holding escaped from them and rattled down to the floor with a sharpness that I hear at this hour.

Lord Iffield had already seized her arm; with a violent jerk he brought her round toward him.