as he sat in the drawing room , listening to miss thornton and duville chatting while they waited for sherry to come downstairs , stephen noticed that the elderly peagoose seemed to hang on to duville 's every word and to beam approvingly at him as he uttered each syllable-an attitude that struck stephen not only as highly inappropriate in a chaperone but damned incomprehensible , considering that duville 's reputation as a womanizer was legendary .