Annette thought him unkindly satirical; and his thoughts of her reduced
her to the condition of a commonplace girl with expressive eyes.
She had to return to her father. Mr. Fellingham took a walk on the
springy turf along the cliffs; and "certainly she is a commonplace girl,"
he began by reflecting; with a side eye at the fact that his meditations
were excited by Tinman's poisoning of his bile. "A girl who can't see the
absurdity of Tinman must be destitute of common intelligence." After a
while he sniffed the fine sharp air of mingled earth and sea delightedly,
and he strode back to the town late in the afternoon, laughing at himself
in scorn of his wretched susceptibility to bilious impressions, and
really all but hating Tinman as the cause of his weakness--in the manner
of the criminal hating the detective, perhaps. He cast it altogether on
Tinman that Annette's complexion of character had become discoloured to
his mind; for, in spite of the physical freshness with which he returned
to her society, he was incapable of throwing off the idea of her being
commonplace; and it was with regret that he acknowledged he had gained
from his walk only a higher opinion of himself.
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