“Not particularly.”
“Of course not. Who would? I know her type. Give her three months, and she'll be managing the lot of us, and talking me into giving Kenneth more money than I've got. You may think I don't bother my head over these things, but that's where you're wrong. When I haven't got anything else to do I think a lot, and, of course, it's quite obvious that she's not at all the sort of girl Kenneth ought to marry.”
“How do you propose to stop him?”
“Well,” said Roger, tipping the ash of his cigarette vaguely in the direction of the stove. “Kenneth seems to be a jealous young cub. Flies off the handle at nothing. My idea was that if I took Violet about a bit it might lead to the engagement's being broken off.”
“Yes,” said Antonia. “But it might lead to a new one's being formed.”
A gleam crept into Roger's eyes. “If she's clever enough to catch me, she can keep me,” he said. “She won't be the first to try, not by a long chalk.”
“It's not a bad idea,” Antonia said slowly. “Only I doubt if you'll succeed in taking Violet in. She's no fool.”
“Anyway,” said Roger, “she might just as well be useful as not, and there's bound to be a lot to do settling me into a flat.”
“Are you trying to lure Violet just to move you into a flat?” Antonia inquired scornfully.
“Well, someone's got to do it,” he pointed out. “Not that that's my only reason, because it isn't. Far from it. Now I've come into all this money I shall go about a bit here and there, and she's a very good sort of girl to take around. What I mean is, she's smart, and she won't want me to think out what she'd like to eat. If there's one thing that wears me out quicker than anything it's having to choose a lot of food for someone else to eat. Besides, if she's supposed to be going to be my sister-in-law I shan't have to be polite. Not that I want to be rude, but I find ceremony very exhausting. And, talking of things being exhausting, they tell me I own the mine now.”