She gave herself the airs of being quite in the inner ring; alleged familiarity with quite impossible persons, with my portentous aunt, with Cabinet Ministers--that sort of people.

They talked about them--she, as if she lived among them; he, as if he tried very hard to live up to them.
She affected reverence for his person, plied him with compliments that he swallowed raw--horribly raw.

It made me shudder a little; it was tragic to see the little great man confronted with that woman.

It shocked me to think that, really, I must appear much like him--must have looked like that yesterday.

He was a little uneasy, I thought, made little confidences as if in spite of himself; little confidences about the _Hour_, the new paper for which I was engaged.