His pleasure or his vexation had begun to affect her emotionally, instead of being as before, merely recorded in her mind, as she might have recorded an object quite exterior to herself, and seen out of the window.

Now it was in the room with her.

Even as Michael left her to speak with him, the consciousness of him rose again in her, making her face anxious.
"And you'll try not to vex him, won't you ?" she said.
His father was in the smoking-room, standing enormously in front of the fire, and for the first time the sense of his colossal fatuity struck Michael.
"There are several things I want to tell you about," he said.

"Your career, first of all.

I take it that you have no intention of deferring to my wishes on the subject." "No, father, I am afraid not," said Michael.
"I want you to understand, then, that, though I shall not speak to you again about it, my wishes are no less strong than they were.