Gazette_.

Jack had taken to her at once. All that was delicate and feminine in him
called out to her square chin and steady eyes. Often she had seen him
look hungrily at her strong hands where bone and muscle plainly showed.
But, in his wistful way, Jack had begun to embarrass her. He was making
love to her in a sense, sometimes sportively, sometimes plaintively, and
he was difficult to resist.

Victoria saw quite well that trouble must ensue. She would not allow the
boy to fall in love with her when all she could offer was an almost
motherly affection. Besides, they could not marry; it would be absurd.
She was puzzled as to what to do. Everything tended to complicate the
situation for her. She had once been to the theatre with Jack and
remembered with anxiety how his arm had rested against hers in the cab
and how, when he leaned over towards her to speak, she had felt him
slowly inhaling the scents of her hair.

She had promised herself that Jack should be snubbed. And now he played
pranks on her. It must end in their being caught in an ambiguous
attitude and then she would be blamed. She might tell Mrs Holt, but then
what would be her position in the household? Jack would sulk and Mrs
Holt would watch them suspiciously until the situation became
intolerable and she had to leave. Leave! no, no, she couldn't do that.
With sudden vividness Victoria pictured the search for work, the silence
of Portsea Place, the Rialto-like archway, Mrs Bell, and the cold, the
loneliness. Events must take their course.

Like the rasp of a corncrake she heard the wheels of the barouche on the
gravel. Mrs Holt had returned from the discourse on the personal devil.

CHAPTER VIII

'THOMAS,' said Mrs Holt with some hesitation.

'Yes,' said Mr Holt. 'What is it?'

'Oh! nothing,' said Mrs Holt. 'Just a queer idea. Nothing worth talking
about.'

'Well, come again when it is worth talking about,' growled Mr Holt,
relapsing into his newspaper.

'Of course there's nothing in it,' remarked Mrs Holt pertinaciously.

'Nothing in what?' her husband burst forth. 'What do you mean, Maria?
Have you got anything to say or not? If you have, let's have it out.'

'I was only going to say that Jack . . . of course I don't think that
Victoria sees it, but you understand he's a very young man, but I don't
blame her, he's such a funny boy,' said Mrs Holt lucidly.

'Good heavens, Maria,' cried her husband, 'do you want me to smash
something