When a man has been coming to see you straight along , twice a week for fifteen years , you get rather talked out by spells . '' Theodora never pretended to bashfulness where Ludovic was concerned . She was not at all shy of referring to him and his dilatory courtship . Indeed , it seemed to amuse her . Anne sat down again and together they watched Ludovic coming down the lane , gazing calmly about him at the lush clover fields and the blue loops of the river winding in and out of the misty valley below . Anne looked at Theodora 's placid , finely-moulded face and tried to imagine what she herself would feel like if she were sitting there , waiting for an elderly lover who had , seemingly , taken so long to make up his mind . But even Anne 's imagination failed her for this . `` Anyway , '' she thought , impatiently , `` if I wanted him I think I 'd find some way of hurrying him up . Ludovic SPEED ! Was there ever such a misfit of a name ? Such a name for such a man is a delusion and a snare . '' Presently Ludovic got to the house , but stood so long on the doorstep in a brown study , gazing into the tangled green boskage of the cherry orchard , that Theodora finally went and opened the door before he knocked . As she brought him into the sitting-room she made a comical grimace at Anne over his shoulder . Ludovic smiled pleasantly at Anne . He liked her ; she was the only young girl he knew , for he generally avoided young girls -- they made him feel awkward and out of place . But Anne did not affect him in this fashion . She had a way of getting on with all sorts of people , and , although they had not known her very long , both Ludovic and Theodora looked upon her as an old friend . Ludovic was tall and somewhat ungainly , but his unhesitating placidity gave him the appearance of a dignity that did not otherwise pertain to him . He had a drooping , silky , brown moustache , and a little curly tuft of imperial , -- a fashion which was regarded as eccentric in Grafton , where men had clean-shaven chins or went full-bearded . His eyes were dreamy and pleasant , with a touch of melancholy in their blue depths .
He sat down in the big bulgy old armchair that had belonged XXXXX Theodora 's father .
about as at before by in into on to with