Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/101

 seen him and recognised him. She ran on with her light chat, seemingly taking no note of her son's distraught manner and absent-minded replies; but after she had let things go on for a safe space, she suddenly looked up with:

"Really, Charles, I might as well save my foolishness for somebody who is less occupied than you seem to be. I should say you were more interested in that man over there than in me."

"Was I really giving attention to him?" the son demanded.

"Most really, and I'm simply wondering where you learned your self-control, that you can do a thing so apparent to a whole roomful." She had not asked a word regarding the man, certain as she was that he would tell her all he knew.

"Do you know who that man is?" her son asked.

"No; really," she said, putting up her glasses, "I had simply noticed him as a man from whom you did not seem able to keep your eyes. Now I look at him, I don't see anything particularly worth noticing."