Mrs.
Verrier believed that the girl had been originally carried off her feet by the young man's superb good looks, and by the natural distinction--evident in all societies--which they conferred upon him.
Then, no doubt, she had been piqued by his good-humoured, easy way--the absence of any doubt of himself, of tremor, of insistence.

Mrs.Verrier said to herself--not altogether shrewdly--that he had no nerves, or no heart; and Daphne had not yet come across the genus.

Her lovers had either possessed too much heart--like Captain Boyson--or a lack of coolness, when it really came to the point of grappling with Daphne and her millions, as in the case of a dozen she could name.

Whereby it had come about that Daphne's attention had been first provoked, then peremptorily seized by the Englishman; and Mrs.Verrier began now to suspect that deeper things were really involved.
Certainly there was a good deal to puzzle the spectator.

That the English are a fortune-hunting race may be a popular axiom; but it was quite possible, after all, that Roger Barnes was not the latest illustration of it.