that you must not talk like this even to yourself. So Peter had to
cast about for other methods.

"Why shouldn't I keep two servants if I like?" It did seem hard on
the old gentleman.

"What's the sense of paying two to do the work of one? You would
only be keeping me on out of charity." The black eyes flashed. "I
ain't a beggar."

"And you really think, Tommy--I should say Jane, you can manage
the--the whole of it? You won't mind being sent on a message,
perhaps in the very middle of your cooking. It was that I was
thinking of, Tommy--some cooks would."

"You go easy," advised him Tommy, "till I complain of having too
much to do."

Peter returned to his desk. Elizabeth looked up. It seemed to
Peter that Elizabeth winked.

The fortnight that followed was a period of trouble to Peter, for
Tommy, her suspicions having been aroused, was sceptical of
"business" demanding that Peter should dine with this man at the
club, lunch with this editor at the Cheshire Cheese. At once the
chin would go up into the air, the black eyes cloud threateningly.
Peter, an unmarried man for thirty years, lacking experience, would
under cross-examination contradict himself, become confused, break
down over essential points.