“I think they go in parallel grooves, and he lets her alone. It is very unlucky, for they are a constant irritation to Bobus, and he fancies them average specimens of good people. He sneers, and I can’t say but that much of what he says is true, but there is the envenomed drop in it which makes his good sense shocking to Armine, and I fear Babie relishes it more than is good for her. So they make one another worse, and so they will as long as we are here. It was a great mistake to stay on, and your uncle must feel it so.”
“Could you not go to Dieppe, or some cheap place?”
“I don’t feel justified in any more expense. Here the house costs nothing, and our personal expenditure does not go beyond our proper means; but to pay for lodging elsewhere would soon bring me in excess of it, at least as long as Allen keeps up the yacht. Then poor Janet must have something, and I don’t know what bills may be in store for me, and there’s your outfit, and Bobus’s.”
“Never mind mine.”
“My dear, that’s fine talking, but you can’t go like Sir Charles Napier, with one shirt and a bit of soap.”
“No, but I shall get something for the exchange. Besides, my kit was costly even for the Guards, and will amply cover all that.”
“And you have sold your horses?”
“And have been living on them ever since! Come, won’t that encourage you to make a little jaunt, just to break the spell?”
“I wish it could, my dear, but it does not seem possible while those bills are such a dreadful uncertainty. I never know what Allen may have been ordering.”
“Surely the Evelyns would be glad to have you.”