bestowing a dazzling smile upon him.

"I felt very much inclined not to see you at all," she declared. "How
dared you keep away from me all this time? You haven't been near me since
I moved in here. What do you think of my little house?"

"Charming!" he declared.

"Every one likes it," she remarked. "Such a time I had choosing the
furniture. Hester wouldn't help with a single thing. You know that she
has left me?"

"I understood that she had gone to Mr. Mannering as secretary," he
answered. "She has done typing for him for some time, hasn't she?"

Mrs. Phillimore nodded.

"Worships him, the little fool!" she remarked. "I must admit I detest
clever men. You are all so dull, and such scheming brutes, too."

Borrowdean smiled. A certain rough-and-ready humour about this woman
always appealed to him. He looked around.

"You seem to have done very nicely with that little offering," he said.

"Oh, ready money goes a long way," she declared, carelessly.

"And when it is spent?" he asked. "Five thousand pounds is not an
inexhaustible sum."