“I’m terribly sorry, Mrs. Fairfax,” he was saying, and as he opened his mouth, astonished, almost, shocked, she noticed quickly how handsome the level lines of his teeth were.

Mrs. Fairfax and her aunt, Miss Barlow, had been speaking of Esmé Lewis, who, her father having died ten years before, and her mother having married again, had lived chiefly with her aunt in ...