Sybil and Brooks talked, but for once her attention wandered.

She seemed listening to the click of the billiard-balls, and watching the man and the woman between whom all conversation seemed dead.

Brooks noticed her absorption, and abandoned his own attempts to interest her.
"Your mother and Lord Arranmore," he remarked, "are very old friends." "They have known one another all their lives," she murmured.

"Lord Arranmore has changed a good deal though since his younger days." Brooks made no reply.

The girl suddenly bent her head towards him.
"Are you a judge of character ?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"Scarcely.