e which so
contrasted with his life of every day; but first and foremost in his
mind came the necessity of making money; and to fill his pockets he
would no more hesitate about destroying the loveliest spot on earth,
than the starving hunter would stay his hand out of admiration for bird
or beast.

It was with much delight that he heard of Mrs. Damerel's retreat to
Whitsand. To the note in which she acquainted him with her arrival
there he replied effusively. 'The patronage of a few really fashionable
people, such as yourself, would soon do wonders. We must have a
special paragraph in the local paper, drawing attention to your being
there'--and so on. An answer by return of post rather disappointed him.
On no account, wrote Mrs. Damerel, must her name be specially mentioned
in the paper. She had taken very simple lodgings, very inexpensive, and
wished to live as quietly as possible. But, after seeing the place, she
quite agreed with Mr Crewe that it had a future, and if he could run
down some day, whilst she was here, it would give her great pleasure to
hear his projects explained on the spot.

Crewe ran down. In speaking of Mrs. Damerel as a 'really fashionable'
person, he used no insincerity; from their first meeting he had seen in
this lady his ideal of social distinction; she was, in fact, the only
woman of skilfully pretentious demeanour with whom he had ever spoken.
Her distant likeness to Nancy Lord interested and attracted him; her
suave superiority awed his conscious roughness; she seemed to him
exquisitely gracious, wonderfully sweet. And as, little by little,
he attained the right to think of her almost as a friend, his humble
admiration became blended with feelings he took particular care not to
betray, lest he should expose himself to ridicule. That her age exceeded
his own by some years he was of course aware, but this fact soon dropped
out of his mind, and never returned to it. Not only did he think Mrs.
Damerel a type of aristocratic beauty, he saw in her countenance all the
freshness and the promise of youth.

The slight mystery attaching to her position only increased his
susceptibility to her charms. It seemed to him very probable that she
had but a moderate income; perhaps she was not free from anxieties on
that score. But such a woman would of course marry again, and marry
well. The thought grew troublesome, and presently accounted for
ebullitions of wrath, accompanied by more than usually vigoro