Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/109

Rh consequence of the very nature of the man that to look at him was to recognise the value of appearances and that he couldn't have dropped upon any scene, however disordered, without, by the simple fact, reestablishing a superficial harmony. His new friend met him with a movement that might have been that of stepping in front of some object to hide it, while Rose, on her side, sounding out like a touched bell, was already alert with her response. "Ah," said Dennis, to himself, "it's for them she cares!"

"She has not come back, but if there's a hurry" Rose was all there.

"There is a hurry. Some one must go for her."

Dennis had a point to make that he must make on the spot. He spoke before Rose's rejoinder. "With your increasing anxieties, Mr. Bream, I'm quite ashamed to be quartered on you. Hadn't I really better be at the inn?"

"At the inn—to go from here? My dear fellow, are you mad?" Tony sociably scoffed; he wouldn't hear of it. "Don't be afraid; we've plenty of use for you—if only to keep this young woman quiet."

"He can be of use this instant." Rose looked at her suitor as if there were not the shadow of a cloud