He wore a white tie, and a small gold stud was visible in the long slit of his white shirt-front.

He was on very easy terms in this house, in an unintimate manner, and dined here once a fortnight or so, without saying or hearing anything of particular interest.

He had been secretly delighted at his daughter's engagement, and had given his consent with gentle and reserved cordiality.

He was a Tory, not exactly by choice, but simply--for the same reason as he was Church of England--because he was unable, in the fiber of him, to imagine anything else.

Of course, Lord Talgarth was the principal personage in his world, simply because he was Lord Talgarth and owned practically the whole parish and two-thirds of the next.