but not
discourteously.
    »How do you do, Mr. Eldon? I'm glad to see that you are so much better. Will
you sit down? I think you know Mr. Rodman, at all events by name?«
    Hubert assented by gesture. He had come prepared for disagreeable things in
this his first meeting with Mutimer, but the honour of an introduction to the
latter's friends had not been included in his anticipations. Mr. Rodman had
risen and bowed slightly. His smile carried a disagreeable suggestion from which
Mutimer's behaviour was altogether free; he rather seemed to enjoy the
situation.
    For a moment there was silence and embarrassment. Richard overcame the
difficulty.
    »Come and dine with me to-night, will you?« he said to Rodman. »Here, take
this plan with you, and think it over.«
    »Pray don't let me interfere with your business,« interposed Hubert, with
scrupulous politeness. »I could see you later, Mr. Mutimer.«
    »No, no; Rodman and I have done for the present,« said Mutimer, cheerfully.
»By-the-by,« he added, as his right-hand man moved to the door, »don't forget to
drop a line to Slater and Smith. And, I say, if Hogg turns up before two
o'clock, send him here; I'll be down with you by half-past.«
    Mr. Rodman gave an »All right,« nodded to Hubert, who paid no attention, and
took his departure.
    »You've had a long pull of it,« Richard began, as he took his chair again,
and threw his legs into an easy position. »Shall I close the windows? Maybe you
don't like the draught.«
    »Thank you; I feel no draught.«
    The working man had the advantage as yet. Hubert in vain tried to be at
ease, whilst Mutimer was quite himself, and not ungraceful in his assumption of
equality. For one thing, Hubert could not avoid a comparison between his own
wasted frame and the other's splendid physique; it heightened the feeling of
antagonism which possessed him in advance, and provoked the haughtiness he had
resolved to guard against. The very lineaments of the men foretold mutual
antipathy. Hubert's extreme delicacy of feature was the outward expression of a
character so compact of subtleties and refinements, of high prejudice and
jealous sensibility, of spiritual egoism and all-pervading fastidiousness, that
it was impossible