utler and one footman, smacked of the same
perfection as the furniture; in fact, he never apologised for anything,
except with a jovial brusqueness that was worse than the offence. The
suave and reasonable weight of his dislikes and his approvals stirred
Shelton up to feel ironical and insignificant; but whether from a sense
of the solid, humane, and healthy quality of his friend's egoism, or
merely from the fact that this friendship had been long in bottle, he
did not resent his mixed sensations.

"By the way, I congratulate you, old chap," said Halidome, while driving
to the theatre; there was no vulgar hurry about his congratulations, no
more than about himself. "They're awfully nice people, the Dennants."

A sense of having had a seal put on his choice came over Shelton.

"Where are you going to live? You ought to come down and live near
us; there are some ripping houses to be had down there; it's really
a ripping neighbourhood. Have you chucked the Bar? You ought to do
something, you know; it'll be fatal for you to have nothing to do. I
tell you what, Bird: you ought to stand for the County Council."

But before Shelton had replied they reached the theatre, and their
energies were spent in sidling to their stalls. He had time to pass his
neighbours in review before the play began. Seated next to him was a
lady with large healthy shoulders, displayed with splendid liberality;
beyond her a husband, red-cheeked, with drooping, yellow-grey moustache
and a bald head; beyond him again two men whom he had known at Eton.
One of them had a clean-shaved face, dark hair, and a weather-tanned
complexion; his small mouth with its upper lip pushed out above the
lower, his eyelids a little drooped over his watchful eyes, gave him
a satirical and resolute expression. "I've got hold of your tail,
old fellow," he seemed to say, as though he were always busy with
the catching of some kind of fox. The other's goggling eyes rested on
Shelton with a chaffing smile; his thick, sleek hair, brushed with water
and parted in the middle, his neat moustache and admirable waistcoat,
suggested the sort of dandyism that despises women. From his recognition
of these old schoolfellows Shelton turned to look at Halidome, who,
having cleared his throat, was staring straight before him at the
curtain. Antonia's words kept running in her lover's head, "I don't like
unhealthy people." Well, all these people, anyway, were healthy; they
looked as if th