I believe Aunt Mary got Evelyn to ask her here with an eye to business." "I would not do Aunt Mary the injustice to doubt _that_ for a moment," replied Charles, rather bitterly; and they relapsed into silence and smoke.
Presently Ralph, who had been out all day, yawned himself into the house, and left Charles to pace up and down by himself.
If Lady Mary, who was at that moment composing herself to slumber in the best spare bedroom, had heard the gist of Ralph's remarks to his brother, I think she would have risen up and confronted him then and there on the stairs.

As it was, she meditated on her couch with much satisfaction, until the sleep of the just came upon her, little recking that the clumsy hand of brutal man had even then torn the veil from her carefully concealed and deeply laid feminine plans.
Charles, meanwhile, remained on the lawn till late into the night.

After two months of London smuts and London smoke and London nights, the calm scented darkness had a peculiar charm for him.

The few lights in the windows were going out one by one, and thousands and thousands were coming out in the quiet sky.

Through the still air came the sound of a corn-crake perpetually winding up its watch at regular intervals in a field hard by.