‘Deceiver! Oh yes; I know he is. He would deceive anyone less clever than himself. I dislike him exceedingly, and so does Speedwell. Well, shall we look at your furniture, Mr. Wellfield?’
‘Thank you,’ said Jerome, accepting the hint, if hint it were—‘if you don’t mind.’
They began with the room in which they were standing, and Nita soon displayed capacities for arranging and settling and turning things to the best advantage, which perfectly astonished Jerome. Numbers of things which he was about to cast aside as being utterly useless, she quickly reclaimed, remarking that they only wanted such and such repairs to make them serviceable and even good.
‘And it would be sinful to throw away a scrap of this old furniture,’ she added. ‘You can’t buy any like it except for fabulous prices, and then you are never sure that you are not being cheated. I am convinced that for fifty pounds or so, you may make the house very nice—at least if you will let me dispose of the fifty pounds for you,’ she added, colouring a little; ‘for I am sure you would be like a child—so helpless—if you went alone to a furniture shop.’
‘I do not doubt it, and would accept your offer gratefully if I did not think it was imposing on your kindness.’
‘Not at all. We will drive into Burnham to-morrow, and see about it,’ replied Nita. ‘Meantime, it is nearly dinner-time, and papa will be waiting. Shall we go back to the Abbey?’
Jerome accompanied her to her home, with new agitation in his breast, and a vague wonder whether, for the future, Monk’s Gate were to be his home.
END OF VOL. I.
BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, GUILDFORD.