CHAPTER VI
There had only been time to satisfy Daniel's profound and touching
interest in his brother's work for the examination when the tea bell
rang, and they went down to the drawing-room. Piers noticed that
Mrs. Hannaford had made a special toilet; so rarely did a new
acquaintance enter the house that she was a little fluttered in
receiving Daniel Otway, whose manners evidently impressed and
pleased her. Had he known his brother well, Piers would have
understood that this exhibition of fine courtesy meant a peculiar
interest on Daniel's part. Such interest was not difficult to
excite; there needed only an agreeable woman's face of a type not
familiar to him, in circumstances which offered the chance of
intimacy. And Mrs. Hannaford, as it happened, made peculiar appeal
to Daniel's sensibilities. As they conversed, her thin cheeks grew
warm, her eyes gathered light; she unfolded a charm of personality
barely to be divined in her usual despondent mood.
Daniel's talk was animated, varied, full of cleverness and
character. No wonder if his hostess thought that she had never met
so delightful a man. Incidentally, in quite the permissible way, he
made known that he was a connoisseur of art; he spoke of his travels
on the track of this or that old master, of being consulted by
directors of great Galleries, by wealthy amateurs. He was gracefully
anecdotic; he allowed one to perceive a fine enthusiasm.
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