I am an amiable old man, I am.

About this Lady Lydiard, now?
Suppose you tell me how you first got acquainted with her ?" In some surprise at this question, Isabel told her little story.
Observing Sharon's face while she was speaking, Moody saw that he was not paying the smallest attention to the narrative.

His sharp, shameless black eyes watched the girl's face absently; his gross lips curled upwards in a sardonic and self-satisfied smile.

He was evidently setting a trap for her of some kind.

Without a word of warning--while Isabel was in the middle of a sentence--the trap opened, with the opening of Old Sharon's lips.
"I say," he burst out.