"Oh you dear donkey!"--and, regardless of all the Regent's Park, she
patted his cheek. This was the sort of moment at which she was
absolutely tempted to tell him that she liked to be near Park Chambers.
There was a fascination in the idea of seeing if, on a mention of Captain
Everard, he wouldn't do what she thought he might; wouldn't weigh against
the obvious objection the still more obvious advantage. The advantage of
course could only strike him at the best as rather fantastic; but it was
always to the good to keep hold when you _had_ hold, and such an attitude
would also after all involve a high tribute to her fidelity. Of one
thing she absolutely never doubted: Mr. Mudge believed in her with a
belief--! She believed in herself too, for that matter: if there was a
thing in the world no one could charge her with it was being the kind of
low barmaid person who rinsed tumblers and bandied slang. But she
forbore as yet to speak; she had not spoken even to Mrs. Jordan; and the
hush that on her lips surrounded the Captain's name maintained itself as
a kind of symbol of the success that, up to this time, had attended
something or other--she couldn't have said what--that she humoured
herself with calling, without words, her relation with him.




CHAPTER XI


She would have admitted indeed that it consisted of little more than the
fact that his absences, however frequent and however long, always ended
with his turning up again. It was nobody's business in the world but her
own if that fact continued to be enough for her. It was of course not
enough just in itself; what it had taken on to make it so was the