Blayne and the rest talked
of him in their least resentful and more amiable moods, they
unconsciously made efforts to express the quality in him which
these two words convey. He had ways of his own. Men that paid a
pretty woman's bills and kept her going in luxury, Jennings and
Mrs. Blayne and the others knew something about. They sometimes
began well enough but, as time went on, they forgot themselves
and got into the way of being familiar and showing they realized
that they paid for things and had their rights. Most of them began
to be almost like husbands--speak slighting and sharp and be a bit
stiff about accounts--even before servants. They ran in and out
or--after a while--began to stay away and not show up for weeks.
"He" was different--so different that it was queer. Queer it certainly
was that he really came to the place very seldom. Wherever they
met, it didn't noticeably often happen in the slice of a house.
He came as if he were a visitor. He took no liberties. Everything
was punctiliously referred to Mrs. Gareth-Lawless. Mr. Benby, who
did everything, conducted himself outwardly as if he were a sort
of man of business in Mrs. Gareth-Lawless' employ. It was open to
the lenient to believe that she depended on some mysterious private
income. There were people who preferred to try to believe this,
but there were those who, in some occult way, knew exactly where
her income came from.
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