He would not have called, and even Mrs.Wilcox could hardly have called without him.

Scandal-mongers said that Tyson struck up an acquaintance with the girl and her mother in a railway carriage somewhere between Drayton and St.Pancras, and had called on the strength of it.

It did great credit to his imagination that he could see the makings of Mrs.Nevill Tyson in Molly Wilcox, dressed according to her mother's taste, with that hair of hers all curling into her eyes in front, and rumpled up anyhow behind.
However, though I daresay his introduction was a little informal and obscure, there was every reason for the intimacy that followed.

The Wilcoxes were unpopular; so, by this time, was Tyson.

In cultivating him Mrs.Wilcox felt that she was doing something particularly esoteric and rather daring.