Taciturnity was becoming a habit with him, and already he was beginning to dislike his new partner.

Indeed, he had disliked and distrusted Madame de Flahaut from the first time of meeting her, and, to do the lady justice, she had disliked Mr. Calvert just as heartily and could never be got to believe that he was anything but a most unintelligent and uninteresting young man, convinced that his taciturnity and unruffled serenity before her charms were the signs of crass stupidity.

Who the gentleman was, or what these impressions were, Julia was left to conjecture, taciturnity being a favorite property in the general.