Her voice was the voice of a cultivated woman, and Tallente, as he mostly listened to her light ripple of conversation, realised that the charm which was hers by reputation was by no means undeserved.

In many ways she astonished him.

The stories which had been told of her, even written, were incredible, yet her manners were entirely the manners of one of his own world.

The trio--Dartrey, with his silence and occasional monosyllabic remarks--seemed to draw closer together at every moment until Miller, obviously chafing at his isolation, thrust himself into the conversation.
"Mr.Tallente," he said, taking advantage of a moment's pause to direct the conversation into a different channel, "we kept our word at Hellesfield." "You did," his host acknowledged drily.

"You succeeded in cheating me out of the seat.