Philip laughed.
“I suppose so, to some extent. Pray don’t let us talk about it. It sounds rather brutal, and I am afraid it is brutalising. Yet, after all, a landlord may put up the rent of his houses.”
Madge Ellington walked on for a few paces without replying.
“How odd of you,” she said at length, “not to feel the fascination of power. I don’t mean to say that one would necessarily want to use it, but it must be so divine to know it is there. Well, if you wish, I won’t talk about it.”
Philip turned to her, his brown thin face looking suddenly eager.
“Ah, I would sooner hear you talk about what you please than about what I please,” he said.
She laughed.
“Can’t I manage to combine the two?” she said. “The river, for instance, I think we both love that. Will you promise to let me live on the river while I am here?”
“I warn you that you will have a good deal of my company, then,” said he.
She laughed again.