It was good for women, he felt sure, to be made to blush sometimes, and he promised himself that he would renew the experiment with Althea.

All the same it must be very unemphatically done; there would be something singularly graceless in venturing too far with this nice pansy, for though she might, all unaware, want to be made to blush, she would never want it to be because of his light motives.
Meanwhile Althea was in dread lest he should see her discomposure and her bliss.

He did not see further than her discomposure.
They rehearsed theatricals all the next day--he, Helen, Lady Pickering, and the girls--and Lady Pickering was very naughty.

Gerald, more than once, had caught Althea's eye fixed, repudiating in its calm, upon her.
It had been especially repudiating when Frances, at tea, had thrown a bun at him.
'Do you know, Miss Jakes,' he said to her after dinner, when, to Lady Pickering's discomfiture, as he saw, he joined Althea on her little sofa, 'do you know, I suspect you of being dreadfully bored by all of us.

We behave like a lot of children, don't we ?' He was thinking of the bun.
'Indeed! I think it charming to be able to behave like a child, if one feels like one,' said Althea, coldly and mildly.
'Don't you ever feel like one?
Do you always behave like a gentle muse ?' 'Do I seem to behave like a muse?
How tiresome I must be,' smiled Althea.
'Not tiresome, rather impressive.