herself--that the family reduced Countess Olenska's allowance
considerably when she definitely refused to go back to her husband; and
as, by this refusal, she also forfeits the money settled on her when
she married--which Olenski was ready to make over to her if she
returned--why, what the devil do YOU mean, my dear boy, by asking me
what I mean?" Mr. Jackson good-humouredly retorted.

Archer moved toward the mantelpiece and bent over to knock his ashes
into the grate.

"I don't know anything of Madame Olenska's private affairs; but I don't
need to, to be certain that what you insinuate--"

"Oh, I don't: it's Lefferts, for one," Mr. Jackson interposed.

"Lefferts--who made love to her and got snubbed for it!" Archer broke
out contemptuously.

"Ah--DID he?" snapped the other, as if this were exactly the fact he
had been laying a trap for. He still sat sideways from the fire, so
that his hard old gaze held Archer's face as if in a spring of steel.

"Well, well: it's a pity she didn't go back before Beaufort's cropper,"
he repeated. "If she goes NOW, and if he fails, it will only confirm
the general impression: which isn't by any means peculiar to Lefferts,
by the way."

"Oh, she won't go back now: less than ever!" Archer had no sooner said
it than he had once more the feeling that it was exactly what Mr.
Jackson had been waiting for.

The old gentleman considered him attentively. "That's your opinion,
eh? Well, no doubt you know. But everybody will tell you that the few
pennies Medora Manson has left are all in Beaufort's hands; and how the
two women are to keep their heads above water unless he does, I can't
imagine. Of course, Madame Olenska may still soften old Catherine,
who's been the most inexorably opposed to her staying; and old
Catherine could make her any allowance she chooses. But we all know
that she hates parting with good money; and the rest of the family have
no particular interest in keeping Madame Olenska here."

Archer was burning with unavailing wrath: he was exactly in the state
when a man is sure to do something stupid, knowing all the while that
he is doing it.

He saw that Mr. Jackson had been instantly struck by the fact that
Madame Olenska's differences with her grandmother and her other
relations were not known to him, and that the old gentleman had drawn
his own conclusions as to the reasons for Archer's exclusion from the
family councils. This fact warned Archer to go war