"Oh, you mean Margaret Octon? Seems a very nice girl, Miss Chatters."
"Jenny's heart's so good—but what a handicap!"
Chat was of that view, then, concerning the coming of Margaret. Well, it was not uncommon.
"We shall never get back to our old terms with Fillingford Manor as long as she's here," said Chat.
"Were you so much attached to Fillingford Manor?" I ventured to ask.
"That would end all the talk," she insisted with an agitated urgency. "If only Lord Fillingford would overlook—" She stopped in a sudden fright. "Don't say I said that!"
"Why, of course not," I answered, smiling. "Anything you want said you can say yourself. It's not my business."
"One can always rely on you, Mr. Austin. But wouldn't that be perfect—after it all, you know?"
It certainly would be picking up the pieces—after a smash into utter fragments! But it is always pleasant to see people contemplating what they regard as perfection; and no very clear duty lies on a private individual to disturb their vision. I told Chat that the idea was no doubt worth thinking over, and so, in amity, we parted.
That was Chat's idea. Octon was gone with his fascination—not unfelt by Chat. Now it would be perfection if Lord Fillingford would overlook! But with that goal in view Margaret Octon was a heavy handicap. Undoubtedly—so heavy, so fatal, that the goal could hardly be Jenny's. Chat, who had done so much to form Jenny, might have given a thought to that aspect of the matter. If one thing were certain, it was that Jenny, when she accepted her legacy from Octon and brought Margaret to Breysgate, thereby abandoned and renounced all thought of renewing her relations with Fillingford. I was glad to come to that conclusion, helped to getting at it clearly (as one often is) by the opposite point of view presented by another. I had never been an enthusiastic Fillingfordite; I had accepted rather than welcomed. And I could bear him better suing than overlooking. Having things overlooked did not suit my idea of Jenny—though I could enjoy seeing her riding buoyant over them.