Page:Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, vol. III, 1866.djvu/154

144 of his thoughts were but ravelled threads of the past. The attorney came forward to shake hands with due politeness, but the old man said, with a bewildered look, and in a hesitating way,

"Mr Jermyn?—why—why—where is Mrs Transome?"

Jermyn smiled his way out past the unexpected group; and little Harry, thinking he had an eligible opportunity, turned round to give a parting stroke on the stranger's coat-tails.