n
convenient for his purposes. By way of making some amends to Adela for
his less than civil behaviour, he took the house and had it modestly
furnished (at the cost of one hundred and ten pounds) before saying
anything to her of his plans. Then, on the pretext of going to search
for pleasanter lodgings, he one day took her to Holloway and led her
into her own dwelling. Adela was startled, but did her best to seem
grateful.

They returned to Pentonville, settled their accounts, packed their
belongings, and by evening were able to sit down to a dinner cooked by
their own servant--under Adela's supervision. Mutimer purchased a couple
of bottles of claret on the way home, that the first evening might be
wholly cheerful. Of a sudden he had become a new man; the sullenness had
passed, and he walked from room to room with much the same air of lofty
satisfaction as when he first surveyed the interior of Wanley Manor.
He made a show of reading in the hour before dinner, but could not keep
still for more than a few minutes at a time; he wanted to handle the
furniture, to survey the prospect from the windows, to walk out into the
road and take a general view of the house. When their meal had begun,
and the servant, instructed to wait at table, chanced to be out of the
room, he remarked:

'We'll begin, of course, to dine at the proper time again. It's far
better, don't you think so?'

'Yes, I think so.'

'And, by-the-by, you'll see that Mary has a cap.'

Adela smiled.

'Yes, I'll see she has.'

Mary herself entered. Some impulse she did not quite understand led
Adela to look at the girl in her yet capless condition. She said
something which would require Mary to answer, and found herself
wondering at the submissive tone, the repeated 'Mum.'

'Yes,' she mused with herself, 'she is our creature. We pay her and she
must attire herself to suit our ideas of propriety. She must remember
her station.'

'What is it?' Mutimer asked, noticing that she had again smiled.

'Nothing.'

His pipe lit, his limbs reposing in the easy-chair, Mutimer became
expansive. He requested Adela's attention whilst he rendered a full
account of all the moneys he had laid out, and made a computation of the
cost of living on this basis.

'The start once made,' he said, 'you see it isn't a bit dearer than the
lodgings. And the fact is, I couldn't have done much in that hole. Now
here, I feel able to go to work. It isn't in reality spending money o