They shook hands, and Constance obediently answered the newcomer’s questions.  She seemed indeed to like answering them, and nothing could have been more courteous and kind than his manner of asking them.  He was clearly a senior man, a don, who, after a strenuous morning of lecturing, was hurrying—­in the festal Eights week—­to meet some friends on the river.  His face was one of singular charm, the features regular, the skin a pale olive, the hair and eyes intensely black.  Whereas Falloden’s features seemed to lie, so to speak, on the surface, the mouth and eyes scarcely disturbing the general level of the face mask—­no indentation in the chin, and no perceptible hollow tinder the brow,—­this man’s eyes were deeply sunk, and every outline of the face—­cheeks, chin and temples—­chiselled and fined away into an almost classical perfection.  The man’s aspect indeed was Greek, and ought only to have expressed the Greek blitheness, the Greek joy in life.  But, in truth, it was a very modern and complex soul that breathed from both face and form.

Constance had addressed him as “Mr. Sorell.”  He turned to walk with her to her door, talking eagerly.  He was asking her about various friends in whose company they had last met—­apparently at Rome; and he made various references to “your mother,” which Constance accepted gently, as though they pleased her.

They paused at the Hoopers’ door.

“But when can I see you?” he asked.  “Has Mrs. Hooper a day at home?  Will you come to lunch with me soon?  I should like to show you my rooms.  I have some of those nice things we bought at Syracuse—­your father and I—­do you remember?  And I have a jolly look out over the garden.  When will you come?”

“When you like.  But chaperons seem to be necessary!”

“Oh, I can provide one—­any number!  Some of the wives of our married fellows are great friends of mine.  I should like you to know them.  But wouldn’t Mrs. Hooper bring you?”

“Will you write to her?”

He looked a little confused.

“Of course I know your uncle very well.  He and I work together in many things.  May I come and call?”

“Of course you may!” She laughed again, with that wilful sound in the laugh which he remembered.  He wondered how she was going to get on at the Hoopers.  Mrs. Hooper’s idiosyncrasies were very generally known.  He himself had always given both Mrs. Hooper and her eldest daughter a wide berth in the social gatherings of Oxford.  He frankly thought Mrs. Hooper odious, and had long since classed Miss Alice as a stupid little thing with a mild talent for flirtation.

Then, as he held out his hand to say good-bye, he suddenly remembered the Vice-Chancellor’s party.

“By the way, there’s a big function to-night.  You’re going, of course?  Oh, yes—­make them take you!  I hadn’t meant to go—­but now I shall—­on the chance!”

He grasped her hand, holding it a little.  Then he was gone, and the Hoopers’ front door swung suddenly wide, opened by some one invisible.