Page:In The Cage (London, Duckworth, 1898).djvu/66

60 to see anything but money made out of his betters. To be curious at the expense of the gentry was vaguely wrong; the only thing that was distinctly right was to be prosperous. Wasn't it just because they were up there aloft that they were lucrative? He concluded, at any rate, by saying to his young friend: 'If it 's improper for you to remain at Cocker's, then that falls in exactly with the other reasons that I have put before you for your removal.'

'Improper?'—her smile became a long, wide look at him. 'My dear boy, there's no one like you!'

'I dare say,' he laughed; 'but that doesn't help the question.'

'Well,' she returned, 'I can't give up my friends. I'm making even more than Mrs. Jordan.'

Mr. Mudge considered. 'How much is she making?'

'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