'Well, I think that would be worse.'
'Perhaps it would; and at any rate, if the blacks do beat me, we could move. Think, no rent, nor rates, nor taxes—that is an inducement to swallow—no—to contend with, any number of blackamoors, isn't it? even if they settle on the tip of Billy-boy's nose.'
'I could come to see you better there than out in a suburb,' said Nuttie. 'But what do these rooms look out upon?'
'On one side into their own court, on the other into Wulstan Street—a quiet place on the whole—all walls and warehouses; and there's an excellent parish church, Mr. Underwood's; so I think we might do worse.'
Nuttie was very sorry that the gentlemen came up, and Mr. Fane wandered out and began asking whether they were going to the rose show. Somehow on that evening she became conscious that Annaple looked at her and Mr. Fane rather curiously; and when they met again the next day, and having grown intimate over the introduction of the two little boys, were driving out together, there were questions about whether she saw much of him.
'Oh, I don't know! He is the nicest, on the whole, of papa's friends; he can talk of something besides'—Nuttie paused over her 'besides,'—'horseyness, and all that sort of thing—he is not so like an old satyr as some of them are; and so he is a resource.'
'I see. And you meet him elsewhere, don't you, in general society?'
'I don't go out much now that Lady Kirkaldy is not in town; but he always seems to turn up everywhere that one goes.'
'Ursula, I'm very glad of that tone of yours. I was afraid—'
'Afraid of what?' cried Nuttie in a defiant tone.