"To his own profit and comfort?"
"I think conceited people must take the chance of that. They expose themselves."
"To being robbed of their farms by deceitful wiles?"
"He'd get a very good price for his farms," said Jenny. I do not think that her mind had been occupied with the question of the farms. She was looking thoughtful again. "I don't think I quarrel with what Lord Fillingford said," she added.
"Not unnatural perhaps."
"I've never had any quarrel with Lord Fillingford," she said slowly. "Or only one—a woman's quarrel. He never fell in love with me. If he had, perhaps—!" She shrugged her shoulders. "But all that sort of thing is over now."
"Did it look so like it this afternoon?"
"Didn't we agree that I was—marriageable? Didn't you say that being marriageable was an asset—even though one didn't marry?" She came suddenly closer to me. "I've no right to ask you to trust me. I didn't trust you—I deceived you deliberately, carefully, grossly—and yet I expected you to help me—and took your help with very little thanks. Still—you stayed. Stay now, and don't think too badly."
"I don't think badly at all—why, you know it! But I must have my fun out of it."
"So you shall, Austin!" she laughed, with one of her sudden transitions to gayety. "I'm the fox, and you're the huntsman! Well, I'll try to give you a good run for your money—if you can follow the scent!"