"Certainly I did not hear it." "And certainly he didn't either," says Tita with decision.
"After that," says Gower, unrolling himself, "I shall retire from public life; I shall give myself up to"-- he pauses and looks round; a favourite ladies' paper is lying on the ground near him--"to literature." He turns over on his side, and apparently becomes engrosses in it.
"Have you been playing, Maurice ?" asks Mrs.Bethune presently.
Her tone is cold.

That little speech of his to Tita, uttered some time ago, "I hope not," had angered her.
"No," returns he as coldly.
He is on one of his uncertain moods with regard to her.

Distrust, disbelief, a sense of hopelessness--all are troubling him.
"What a shame, Sir Maurice!" says Mrs.Chichester, leaning forward.
As I have hinted, she would have flirted with a broomstick.

"And you, who are our champion player." "I'll play now if you will play with me," says Sir Maurice gallantly.
"A safe answer," looking at him with a pout, and through half-closed lids.

She finds that sort of glance effective sometimes.