He took her chin in his hand, and looked down into the glowing, excited young face; then stooped and kissed her, saying: ‘I only wish we had not been strangers so long.’
They turned back, having come to the end of the garden, and Avice went on:
‘I have a great many things to ask about, Jerome. First, I want to know if we are rich?’
‘Rich! No. At least, not millionaires. I don’t exactly know what my father’s income is. Somewhere about two or three thousand a year, I suppose. He has always allowed me six hundred, since I came of age; and it has been quite enough.’
‘But you lead such a simple life, compared with that of some young men.’
He looked at her, surprised. ‘What do you know about the lives “some” young men lead?’
‘I don’t know anything, except that most of papa’s gentlemen friends spend more than six hundred a year, I am sure. I could not help seeing things, when we have stayed in so many places. You don’t keep a lot of horses, nor play cards for large stakes, nor give grand entertainments, nor spend heaps of money on dress.’
‘In all those matters I am severely virtuous, I confess—at any rate, in the last. At the same time, my sweet child, I have always, by dint of unwearying exertions, contrived to live up to my income; and perhaps had it been larger even, I might have succeeded in spending it.’
‘I daresay; but you know what I mean. You would never be like young Baron Zeppenheim, for instance, whom we knew at Wiesbaden. I really believe he had hundreds of suits of clothes.’
Jerome laughed.