The question was whether she had not been committing herself more than the young man had been doing on his side.

That was the astonishing part of it.

Mrs.Verrier could not sufficiently admire the skill with which Roger Barnes had so far played his part; could not sufficiently ridicule her own lack of insight, which at her first meeting with him had pronounced him stupid.

Stupid he might be in the sense that it was of no use to expect from him the kind of talk on books, pictures, and first principles which prevailed in Daphne's circle.

But Mrs.Verrier thought she had seldom come across a finer sense of tactics than young Barnes had so far displayed in his dealings with Daphne.