Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/165

Rh "To my certain and absolute knowledge." This mutual candour continued, and presently she said: "But you—where do you come from?"

"From far away—I've been out of England. After my visit here I went back to my post."

"And now you've returned with your fortune?"

He gave her a smile from which the friendliness took something of the bitter quality. "Call it my misfortune!" There was nothing in this to deprive Mrs. Beever of the pleasant play of a professional sense that he had probably gathered such an independence as would have made him welcome at the Bank. On the other hand she caught the note of a tired grimness in the way he added: "I've come back with that. It sticks to me!"

For a minute she spared him. "You want her as much as ever?"

His eyes confessed to a full and indeed to a sore acceptance of that expression of the degree. "I want her as much as ever. It's my constitutional obstinacy!"

"Which her treatment of you has done nothing to break down?"