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LORD HOLME seldom went to parties and never to private views. He thought / such things "all damned rot. " Few functions connected with the / arts appealed to his frankly Philistine spirit, which rejoiced in / celebrations linked with the glories of the body; boxing and wrestling / matches, acrobatic performances, weight-lifting exhibitions, and so / forth. He regretted that bear-baiting and cock-fighting were no longer / legal in England, and had, on two occasions, travelled from London to / South America solely in order to witness prize fights.
As he so seldom put in an appearance at smart gatherings he had not / yet encountered Miss Schley, nor had he heard a whisper of her / much-talked-of resemblance to his wife. Her name was known to him as / that of a woman whom one or two of his "pals" began to call a "deuced / pretty girl" but his interest in her was not greatly awakened. The / number of deuced pretty girls that had been in his life, and in the / lives of his pals, was legion. They came and went like feathers dancing / on the wind. The mere report of them, therefore, casual and drifting, / could not excite his permanent attention, or fix their names and the / record of their charms in his somewhat treacherous memory. Lady Holme / had not once mentioned the American to him. She was a woman who knew how / to be silent, and sometimes she was silent by instinct without saying to / herself why.