Anyway, you dined with Mr.Gaviller, didn't you ?" "John Gaviller would never let himself off any of the duties of hospitality," said Ambrose cautiously.
He was wondering how far Strange might be admitted to Gaviller's confidence.

That he was being drawn out, Ambrose had no doubt at all, but he did not know just to what end.
Strange launched into extensive praises of John Gaviller.

"I ought to know," he said in conclusion.

"I've worked for him twenty-nine years.
He taught me all I know.

He's been a second father to me." Ambrose felt as an honest man hearing an unnecessary and fulsome panegyric must feel, slightly nauseated.