er vexatious self-consciousness
disappeared. She had from time to time remarked the Chichester, but
never with any particularity; it had been for her just an establishment
among innumerable others, and not one of the best,--the reverse of
imposing. It stood at the angle of King's Road and Ship Street, and a
chemist's shop occupied the whole of the frontage, the hotel-entrance
being in Ship Street; its architecture was fiat and plain, and the place
seemed neglected, perhaps unprosperous.

"Twenty bow-windows!" murmured George Cannon, and then smiled at
himself, as if ashamed of his own naivete.

And Hilda counted the windows. Yes, there were eight on King's Road and
twelve at the side. The building was high, and it was deep, stretching
far down Ship Street. In a moment it began to put on, for Hilda, quite
special qualities. How high it was! How deep it was! And in what a
situation! It possessed mysterious and fine characteristics which set it
apart. Strange that hitherto she had been so blind to it! She and George
Cannon were divided from the house by the confused and noisy traffic of
the roadway, and by the streaming throngs on the opposite pavement. And
none of these people riding or driving or walking, and none of the
people pushing past them on the pavement behind, guessed that here on
the kerb was the future master of the Chichester, an amazing man, and
that she, Hilda Lessways, by his side, was the woman to whom he had
chosen first to relate his triumph! This unrecognised secrecy in the
great animated street was piquant and agreeable to Hilda, a source of
pride.

"I suppose you've bought it?" she ventured. She had no notion of his
financial resources, but her instinct was to consider them infinite.

"No! I've not exactly bought it," he laughed. "Not quite! I've got the
lease, from Christmas. How much d'ye think the rent is?" He seemed to
challenge her.

"Oh! Don't ask me!"

"Five hundred a year," he said, and raised his chin. "Five hundred a
year! Ten pounds a week! Nearly thirty shillings a day! You've got to
pay that before you can even begin to think of your own profits."

"But it's enormous!" Hilda was staggered. All her mother's houses put
together had brought in scarcely a third of the rental of that single
house, which was nevertheless only a modest unit in several miles of
houses. "But can you make it pay?"

"I fancy so! Else I shouldn't have taken it. The present man can't. But
then he's paying L