"If it had, I might not have seen."
"No; you had not reached an observant age. But since you returned—"
"I have noticed worry and uneasiness—a burden or cloud, as you say. My father never seems at rest. There is a kind of unhappy looking forward, expecting trouble to come." Nigel spoke slowly, weighing his words. "Now and then I have fancied it to be connected with money. Fulvia says he is always talking of expenses, and the fact that he objects to college for me—"
"Fudge!" said Mr. Carden-Cox.
"I should have thought my father's income equal to that strain, certainly. He made no difficulty about my trip."
"I took care that he should not."
Nigel failed to catch the muttered sentence.
"Of course he has had the use of Fulvia's money, to some extent; and he may have been looking forward to losing—"
Nigel stopped short. There was an odd click of Mr. Carden-Cox's tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"The fact is, nobody knows much about that," said Mr. Carden-Cox, as if addressing himself: "Browning has been entirely irresponsible to anybody all along—everything left in his hands—absurd arrangement; putting temptation in a man's path. May be all right, or may not be. No ill intentions, of course; means to do his best; but what about business qualities? Hey? Well, well; I've kept my own counsel hitherto, and I mean to keep it—till—Fact is, everybody must know everything soon. Twenty-first of next month! Why on earth has Browning a mortal horror of that day?"