heart.

Sec.7

The evening after his wife had had this glimpse into Sir Isaac's mental
processes he telephoned that Charterson and Horatio Blenker were coming
home to dinner with him. Neither Lady Charterson nor Mrs. Blenker were
to be present; it was to be a business conversation and not a social
occasion, and Lady Harman he desired should wear her black and gold with
just a touch of crimson in her hair. Charterson wanted a word or two
with the flexible Horatio on sugar at the London docks, and Sir Isaac
had some vague ideas that a turn might be given to the public judgment
upon the waitresses' strike, by a couple of Horatio's thoughtful yet
gentlemanly articles. And in addition Charterson seemed to have
something else upon his mind; he did not tell as much to Sir Isaac but
he was weighing the possibilities of securing a controlling share in
the _Daily Spirit_, which simply didn't know at present where it was
upon the sugar business, and of installing Horatio's brother, Adolphus,
as its editor. He wanted to form some idea from Horatio of what Adolphus
might expect before he approached Adolphus.

Lady Harman wore the touch of crimson in her hair as her husband had
desired, and the table was decorated simply with a big silver bowl of
crimson roses. A slight shade of apprehension in Sir Isaac's face
changed to approval at the sight of her obedience. After all perhaps she
was beginning to see the commonsense of her position.

Charterson struck her as looking larger, but then whenever she saw him
he struck her as looking larger. He enveloped her hand in a large
amiable paw for a minute and asked after the children with gusto. The
large teeth beneath his discursive moustache gave him the effect of a
perennial smile to which his asymmetrical ears added a touch of waggery.
He always betrayed a fatherly feeling towards her as became a man who
was married to a handsome wife old enough to be her mother. Even when he
asked about the children he did it with something of the amused
knowingness of assured seniority, as if indeed he knew all sorts of
things about the children that she couldn't as yet even begin to
imagine. And though he confined his serious conversation to the two
other men, he would ever and again show himself mindful of her and throw
her some friendly enquiry, some quizzically puzzling remark. Blenker as
usual treated her as if she were an only very indistinctly visible
presence to whom an effusive yet inatte