"No, no, dear," said Mrs. Jupp, who never liked to see the old lady put out. "I'm sure there's they as are twenty years younger would like to be able to see as far into a milestone as you can. Only you don't know about this, because you don't get out much now, and you don't know what's goin' on up at the Tower, save from Ann and suchlike. Now my ideer is, that Miss Netty has come into a fortin'."
"No!" cried the old lady.
"Yes," said Mrs. Jupp, nodding her head violently. "Yes, I think she have, and that's what her aunt meant about a prize, I take it. For don't you see, we've asked, all of us, often enough, what kept them livin' down here. 'Tain't that they come down for the shootin', or the yachtin', or that, jest at one season, like Sir 'Erc'les, though he was bred and born down here, and it's his fam'ly place. But there they stick, summer and winter, spring and autumn, never movin', though the Captain's a-wearyin' hisself to death; and there's no call for Mrs. Derinzy to stop here neither."
"Not for her health?"
"Not a bit of it! Between you and me, I think there's a consp---- However, I'll tell you more about that when I know more; meantime, I think Mrs. Derinzy's all right, and I don't think it's for health Miss Annette is kept here."
"The Dorsetsheer air----" Mrs. Powler began; but seeing an incredulous smile on her friend's face, she broke off shortly, and said: "Well, then, what does keep 'em down here?"
"The fortin' that we was speakin' of; the prize that Nancy Bell heard Mrs. D. tell off. Don't you see, my dear? Suppose what I think is right--they've got the poor thing down here in their own hands, to do jest what they like wi'; nobody to say, with your leave, or by your leave; cooped up there wi' them two old people and that termagant Mrs. Stothard. Now if she was away in London, or Exeter, or any other large place o' that sort, why o' course there'd be young men sweetheartin' her--for she's a main pratty gell, though slouchin', and not one to show herself off--and she'd be gettin' married, and her money would go away from them to her husband. That's what Mrs. D. meant about the prize bein' 'open to the world,' and people 'runnin' off with it,' and that like."
Mrs. Powler sat speechless for a few moments, looking at her friend with her sharp little black eyes, and going over what had just been told her in her mind. Her faculties began to be somewhat dimmed by age, and she required time for intellectual digestion. Mrs. Jupp knew her friend's habit, and remained silent likewise, thoughtfully rubbing the side of her nose with a knitting-needle which she had produced from her pocket. At length the old lady said:
"I du 'low you're right, Harriet, though I niver give you credit for so much sharpness before."
And Mrs. Jupp had many pleasant teas, and many succulent suppers, and much pleasant gossip, on the strength of her perspicacity in the matter of the great Derinzy mystery.