She talked with Shenstone again
after dinner and was pleased that he was to be in the same box with her at
the opera the next night. He had spent much of his time on the other side
of the Atlantic. He was unusually well educated for an artist's, and his
mind was not developed in one direction only. Like Marian, his point of
view was artistic and emotional. Like her he had a reverence for tradition,
a deference to caste--the latter not offensive for the same reason that
hers was not, because good birth and good breeding made him of the "high
caste" and not a cringer with his eyes craned upward. It seemed in him, as
in her, a sort of self-respect.
Marian showed a candid liking for his society and he was quick to take
advantage of it. For a month they saw more and more each of the other, she
discreet without deliberation and he discreet with deliberation. He talked
to her of his work, of his ambition. He showed her himself without egotism.
He made an impression upon her so distinct and so favourable that she
admitted to herself that he was the most fascinating man--except one--whom
she had ever met.
When Howard at last returned, defeated by corruption within his own party
and for the time disgusted with politics, she at once had Shenstone at the
house to dine.
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