acious, secure from encroachment and, with proper capital outlay,
returning three per cent.--he admires it as the rest of us a
Velasquez--well, some of us--or others, a thoroughbred. Careful man as
he was, he declined to be dismayed at Jenny's growing expenditure. "The
income's growing, too," he said. "It grows and must grow with the
borough. Old Nick Driver had a very long head! She can't help becoming
richer, whatever she does--in reason." He winked at me, adding, "After
all, it isn't as if she had to buy Fillingford, is it?" I did not feel
quite sure that it was not--and at a high price; but to say that would
have been to travel into another sphere of discussion.

"Well, I'm very glad her affairs are so flourishing. But I wish the new
liveries weren't so nearly sky-blue. I hope she won't want to put you
and me in them!"

Cartmell paid no heed to the liveries. He took a puff at his cigar and
said, "Now--if only she'll keep straight!" That would have seemed an odd
thing to say--to anyone not near her.

Yet trouble came--most awkwardly and at a most awkward moment. Octon
himself was the cause of it, and I--unluckily for myself--the only
independent witness of the central incident.

He had--like Jenny--been away most of the winter, but I had no reason to
suppose that they had met or even been in communication; in fact, I
believe that he was in London most of the time, finishing his new book
and superintending the elaborate illustrations with which it was
adorned. He did, however, reappear at Hatcham Ford close on the heels of
Jenny's return to Breysgate, and the two resumed their old--and somewhat
curious--relations. If ever it were true of two people that they could
live neither with nor without one another, it seemed true of that
couple. He was always seeking her, and she ever ready and eager to
welcome him; yet at every other meeting at least they had a tiff--Jenny
being, I must say, seldom the aggressor, at least in the presence of
third persons: perhaps her offenses, such as they were, were given in
private. But there was one difference which I perceived quickly, but
which Octon seemed slower to notice: I hoped that he might never notice
it at all, or, if he did, accept it peaceably. Jenny preferred, if it
were possible, to receive him when the household party alone was
present; when the era of entertaining set in, he was bidden on the
off-nights. No doubt this practice admitted of being put--and perhaps
was put