to do with your mind?" She rubbed her own chin, which was a little white
ball, and pushed it forward, glowering at his great jaw. Then her
examination ended. She noticed that all over his upper lip and chin
there was a faint bluish bloom, as if he had shaved closely and
recently but the strong hair was already pressing through again. That
disgusted her, although she reminded herself that he could not help it,
that that was the way he was made. "There's something awful like an
animal about a man," she thought, and shivered.

"Och, aye!" said Mr. Philip, which was a sure sign that he was upset,
for in business he reckoned to say "Yes, yes." The two men began by
exchange of politenesses about Mr. Frank Gibson, to whom they referred
in the impersonal way of business conversations as though he were some
well-known brand of integrity, and then proceeded to divest the property
in Rio de Janeiro of all interest in a like manner. It was a house, it
appeared, and was at present let to an American named Capel on a five
years' lease, which had nearly expired. There was no likelihood of Capel
requiring any extension of this lease, for he was going back to the
States. So now Yaverland wanted to sell it. There ought to be no trouble
in finding a buyer, for it was a famous house. "Everybody in Rio knows
the Villa Miraflores," he said. She gasped at the name and wrote it in
longhand; to compress such deliciousness into shorthand would have been
sacrilege. After that she listened more eagerly to his voice, which she
perceived was charged with suppressed magic as it might have been with
suppressed laughter. The merry find no more difficulty in keeping a
straight face than he found in using the flat phrase. And as she
gleefully gazed at him, recognising in him her sort of person, his
speech slipped the business leash. There were hedges of geranium and
poinsettia about the villa, pergolas hung with bougainvillea, numberless
palms, and a very pleasant orange grove in good bearing; in the