_Lady Maisie._ No, RHODA. Not his--_ours_. Mine and Mamma's. We ought to have felt from the first that there _must_ be some mistake, that poor Mr. SPURRELL couldn't _possibly_ be a poet! I don't know, though; people generally _are_ unlike what you'd expect from their books. I believe they do it on purpose! Not that that applies to Mr. BLAIR; he _is_ one's idea of what a poet should be. If he hadn't arrived when he did, I don't think I could ever have borne to read another line of poetry as long as I lived!
_Lady Rhoda._ I _say_! Do you call him as good-lookin' as all _that_?
_Lady Maisie._ I was not thinking about his looks, RHODA--it's his _conduct_ that's so splendid.
_Lady Rhoda._ His conduct? Don't see anything splendid in missin' a train. I could do it myself if I tried?
_Lady Maisie._ Well, I wish I could think there were many men capable of acting so nobly and generously as he did.
_Lady Maisie._ You really don't see! Well, then, you _shall_. He arrives late, and finds that somebody else is here already in his character. He makes no fuss; manages to get a private interview with the person who is passing as himself; when, of course, he soon discovers that poor Mr. SPURRELL is as much deceived as anybody else. What is he to do? Humiliate the unfortunate man by letting him know the truth? Mortify my Uncle and Aunt by a public explanation before a whole dinner-party? That is what a stupid or a selfish man might have done, almost without thinking. But not Mr. BLAIR. He has too much tact, too much imagination, too much chivalry for that. He saw at once that his only course was to spare his host and hostess, and--and all of us a scene, by slipping away quietly and unostentatiously, as he had come.
_Lady Rhoda_ (_yawning_). If he saw all that, why didn't he _do_ it?
_Lady Maisie_ (_indignantly_). Why? How provoking you can be, RHODA! _Why?_ Because that stupid TREDWELL wouldn't let him! Because ARCHIE delayed him by some idiotic practical joke! Because Mr. SPURRELL went and blurted it all out!... Oh, don't try to run down a really fine act like that; because you can't--you simply _can't_!
_Lady Rhoda_ (_after a low whistle_). No idea it had gone so far as that--already! _Now_ I begin to see why GERRY THICKNESSE has been lookin' as if he'd sat on his best hat, and why he told your Aunt he might have to be off to-morrow; which is all stuff, because I happen to know his leave ain't up for two or three days yet. But he sees this Troubadour has put his poor old nose out of joint for him.