Indeed I wonder you should not have thought of him in the first instance, since he is your own, as well as Dick's lifelong friend." "Ned Tremayne ?" Her ladyship fell into thought.

"Do you know, I am a little afraid of Ned.

He is so very sober and cold.

You do mean Ned--don't you ?" "Whom else should I mean ?" "But what could he do ?" "My dear, how should I know?
But at least I know--for I think I can be sure of this--that he will not lack the will to help you; and to have the will, in a man like Captain Tremayne, is to find a way." The confident, almost respectful, tone in which she spoke arrested her ladyship's attention.

It promptly sent her off at a tangent: "You like Ned, don't you, dear ?" "I think everybody likes him." Sylvia's voice was now studiously cold.
"Yes; but I don't mean quite in that way." And then before the subject could be further pursued the carriage rolled to a standstill in a flood of light from gaping portals, scattering a mob of curious sight-seers intersprinkled with chairmen, footmen, linkmen and all the valetaille that hovers about the functions of the great world.
The carriage door was flung open and the steps let down.