Really this was serious! And the beggars knew it, and they were going to work it.

And Miltoun had gone up to Town, no one knew what for.

It was the devil of a mess! In all the conversation of this young man there was that peculiar brand of voice, which seems ever rebutting an accusation of being serious--a brand of voice and manner warranted against anything save ridicule; and in the face of ridicule apt to disappear.

The words, just a little satirically spoken: "What is, my dear young man ?" stopped him at once.
Looking for the complement and counterpart of Lady Casterley, one would perhaps have singled out her brother.

All her abrupt decision was negated in his profound, ironical urbanity.