I hope that my company on the morning rides was agreeable to Jenny, but I cannot be persuaded that it was necessary; she showed such perfect ability to handle a situation which, if not precisely difficult, might easily have become so under less skillful management.  There had, of course, never been any serious love-making between her and Lacey; whatever he may have been inclined to feel, or to tell himself that he felt, she had always kept him to his position as “a boy.”  Yet young women in the twenties do not always scorn the attentions of boys, and Jenny had certainly not despised Lacey’s.  In fact, they had flirted, and flirted pretty hard ­and, as has been seen, Jenny was at no trouble to deny it.  But now the thing had to stop ­or rather the flirtation had to be transformed, the friendship established on a new basis.  Into this task Jenny put some of her best work.  Her finest weapon was a frank cordiality ­such as could not but delight a friend, but was really hopeless for a lover.  To every advance it opposed a shield of shining friendliness, of a hearty, almost masculine, comradeship.  It left no room for the attacks and defenses, the challenges and evasions, the pursuit, the flight, and the collusive capture.  It was all such immensely plain sailing, all so pre-eminently above-board, in its unmitigated cunning.  But it was charming also, and Lacey, though naturally a little puzzled at first, soon felt the charm.  He was wax in those clever hands; she seemed to be able not only to make him do what she wanted, but even to make him feel toward her as she wished ­to impart to his emotions the color which she desired them to take.  Positively I think he began to forget the flirtation in the friendship, or to charge his memory with twisting or misinterpreting the facts.  All the time, though, he would have been ready to resume the old footing at the smallest encouragement, the lightest touch of coquetry or allurement.  But Jenny’s masterpiece of honest friendship was without any such flaw; if she was great at flirtation, she was no less a mistress of the art of baffling it.  With such ability and such self-confidence what need had she of my presence?  She was wiser than I was when I put that question to myself.  I thought only of what would happen; she remembered what people might say ­that the neighbors had tongues, and that Fillingford had ears to his head like other folks.  While the buckler of cordiality fronted Lacey, I was her shield against a flank attack.

Had she really made up her mind then?  It looked like it.  If she rode in my company with Lacey in the morning, she received his father without my company in the afternoon.  There could be no doubt what he came for; middle-aged men of many occupations do not pay calls two or three afternoons a week without a purpose.  What passed at these interviews remained, of course, a secret; I confess to a suspicion that Jenny found them dull.  Fillingford’s wariness of exposing himself to rebuff or ridicule, his habitual secretiveness as to his emotions, cannot have made him either an ardent or an entertaining suitor.  In truth I do not believe that he seriously pretended to be in love.  He liked her very much; he thought that she would fill well the place he had to offer, and that she, in her turn, would like to fill it, and might find him agreeable enough to accept with it.  That would content him.  With that I thought she, too, would be content ­considering the other advantages thrown in.  She would not have cared for his love, but she could endure his company.  That carried with it only a limited liability ­and good dividends in the form of rank, position, and influence.  In dealing with the Drivers one had a tendency to fall into commercial metaphors; caught from old Nicholas, the trick extended itself to Jenny.

But if he were resolved and she ready, why did the thing hang fire?  It did ­and surely by Jenny’s will?  She was reasoning; the affair could not look dangerous; then it looked dull?  But it would look no less dull the longer she looked at it.  Her feelings were not engaged; unless caught up by strong emotions, she shunned the irrevocable, liked open alternatives, hated to close the line of retreat; he who still parleys is still free, he who still bargains is still master.  That attitude of her mind ­re-enforced by her father’s warning ­was always strong with her and had always to be remembered.  Was it enough to account for her continuing to keep Fillingford at bay?  The answer might well be yes ­for these natural predispositions will knock the bottom out of much speciously logical reasoning about people.  But there was another factor in the case ­a thing which could not be overlooked.  Why was Leonard Octon keeping quiet?  Or if quiet perforce, why did he seem placid, content, and, contrary to all expectation of him, amiably trustful?

One evening I availed myself of his invitation ­Jenny did not always bid me to dinner, and sometimes I was lonely even as he was ­and walked down to Hatcham Ford.  Passing Ivydene, I was interested to observe lights in the window, though it was nine o’clock at night.  Presumably friend Nelson Powers did not merely use the place as his office (Cartmell’s protest had, of course, not produced the smallest effect on Jenny ­my own having failed, I should have been annoyed if it had), but was established there with his family.  Certainly Jenny did not always procrastinate ­she seemed to delay least when the transaction was most doubtful!  But I had come to accept Powers’s position as one of her freaks and, save for a rather sour amusement, thought at the moment little more about him.

That night ­it seems strange to say it, but it expresses my inmost feelings ­I made friends with Leonard Octon; before I had been merely interested, amused, and exasperated in turn.  He chose to remove from me the ban which he laid on and maintained over most of his fellow-creatures ­from no merit of my own, as I believe, but because I stood near to Jenny; or, if I can claim any part in the matter, because of a certain openness of mind which, as he was good enough to declare, existed in me.  This was to say no more than that, to a certain and limited extent, I agreed with some of his prejudices ­his own openness of mind consisting mainly in a hatred of the views and opinions of most other people.  I was a very pale copy of him.  Things toward which my meditations and my temper bred in me a degree of indifference he frankly and cordially hated.  Respectability may be chosen as the word to sum them up; if I questioned its merits, he hated and damned it utterly.  This was one of the things which interested and amused ­and, when it issued in rudeness to Lady Aspenick, also exasperated.  It was not for this that I made friends with him.

“When I saw that woman owning that road ­coming along in her twopenny glory, with her flunkeys to whistle me out of the way ­she looked at me herself, too, mind you, and without a gleam of recognition ­I got angry.  Not even the public road, mind you!  She was a guest as I was.”

“But you weren’t driving a tandem with a restive leader.”

“And oughtn’t she to apologize for driving restive horses?  Must I dodge for my life ­or for hers ­without even a civil word or look ­just an order from a flunkey?”

“For some reason or another,” I observed, “people who are angry always call grooms and footmen flunkeys.”

He burst into a guffaw of laughter.  “Lord, yes, asses all of us, to be sure!  And what, after all, does a flick in the face come to, Mr. Philosopher?  Nothing at all!  It hardly even hurts.  But a man calls it a deadly insult ­when he’s angry; between man and man there must be blood for it when they’re angry.”

“There’s the police court,” I suggested mildly.

“As you say, for sheep there’s the police court.  I came as near behaving right as one can with a woman when I broke her whip.”

“You really think that?”

“Yes, Austin, I really do ­and that shows, as you were going to say, that I’m utterly hopeless.  I don’t fit the standards.”  He was sitting hunched up over the fire, monopolizing its heat, his great shoulders nearly up to his ears.  He condemned himself with much better humor than he judged other people.  “I don’t fit them, I don’t agree with them, I hate them.  Left to myself, I’d get out of this.”

“Who’s stopping you?” I asked, pulling at my pipe and trying to edge nearer the fire.

He took no notice of my question ­which was indeed no more than an indifferently civil way of suggesting that he was at liberty to please himself.  He took no notice of my futile edging either.

“Now if I had Jenny Driver’s gifts for the game,” he went on, “I daresay I should like it.  Oh, you were quite right there!  She’s equal to ruling the county, and ruling it well.  Since she can do it, I don’t blame her for trying.  Perhaps I’d try myself in the same case.  But, mind you, in her heart she thinks no more of them than I do.  They can give her what she wants, they can’t give me what I want ­that’s all the difference.  So it’s worth her while to fool them ­and it’s not worth mine.  Not that I could do it half as well as she does!”

His admiration of Jenny was unmistakably affectionate as well as amused.  There is a way a man draws at his pipe ­long pulls with smiles in between.  It tells a tale when a woman’s name has just passed his lips.

“Then all she’s got ­the big place and the money ­the influence and so on ­wouldn’t attract you?”

He turned slowly to me.  “It might, if I thought that I could make terms with the people.  But I can’t do that.  So I should hate it.  Why did you ask me that question, Austin?”

“Why not?  We were discussing your character, and any sidelights ­” I ended with a shrug.

“You humbug, you infernal humbug!” he said.  Then he fell into silence, staring again at the fire.

“Not at all.  My interest is quite speculative.  What else should it be?  Is she likely to die and leave you her property?” I spoke in sincerity, having in my mind Jenny’s purpose with regard to Fillingford, for a settled purpose it had by now, to my thinking, become.

My sincerity went home to him, and carried with it an uncontrollable surprise.  He turned his head toward me again with a rapid jerk.  His eyes searched my face, now rather suspiciously.  Then he smiled.  “Yes, that’s true.  I suppose I ought to beg your pardon!” he said.

He had recovered himself in time and had told me no secret.  But he had been surprised to find that I considered any relation of his to Jenny’s place and property as a mere speculation ­no more than the illustration to an argument.  Then he must consider it as more than that himself.  But then how could he ­he, the ostracized?  Yet there was the secret treaty, whose terms availed to keep him quiet ­quiet and at Hatcham Ford.  There were a lover’s obstinate hopes.  And ­the thought flashed into my mind ­had he any knowledge of Fillingford’s frequent calls or of the dexterous management of Lacey?  It was probable that he knew as little of them as Fillingford knew of the mysterious treaty.

Suddenly he started a new topic; between it and the previous one there seemed no connection ­unless Jenny were the link.

“I say, that’s a rum fish ­my new neighbor Nelson Powers!”

“You’ve made acquaintance?  You haven’t been long about it!”

“He smokes his pipe, leaning over his garden fence; I smoke mine, leaning over my gate.  Hence the acquaintance.”

“Of course; you’re always so affable, so accessible to strangers.”

He dropped his scarcely serious pretense of having made Powers’s acquaintance casually.  “Miss Driver told me something about him.  We’ve been in communication about this house and the Institute, you know.”

“Did she tell you anything interesting about him?”

“Only that he’d been a humble friend in days gone by.  You’re looking rather sour, Austin.  Don’t you like Mr. Nelson Powers?”

“He’s not one of my particular fancies,” I admitted.

“Miss Driver says he’s devoted to her.”

“He’s in debt to her, anyhow, I expect ­and perhaps that’ll do as well.”

“Perhaps.”  He was speaking now in a ruminative way ­as though he were comparing in his mind Jenny’s account of Powers, my opinion of Powers, and his own impression of the man.  He seemed to me to give more thought to Powers than I should have expected from him; a rude and contemptuous dismissal would have been Powers’s more probable fate at his hands.

“Are you going to clear out for the Institute?” I asked.

“I shall be out of this house in less than a year, anyhow.  That’s settled.”

“Oh, then your negotiations have been very satisfactory!  You had a right to stay here two years.”

“The present state of affairs can’t drag on for two years,” he said, looking at me steadily.  His ostensible reference might be to his uncomfortable relations toward his neighbors; I was sure that he meant more than that ­and did not mind letting me see it.  A restlessness betrayed itself in his movements; he seemed to be on the edge of an outbreak and to hold himself back with a struggle.  His victory was very imperfect:  he could not keep off the subject which perturbed him; he could only contrive to treat it with a show of lightness and contempt.  The subject had been in my thoughts already.

“Seeing much of our friend Fillingford just now at the Priory?”

“He comes a certain amount.  I don’t see much of him.”

“And that sets fools gossiping, I suppose?”

“Need you ask me, Octon?  I fancy you’ve heard something for yourself.”

He rubbed his big hands together, giving a laugh which sounded rather uneasy under its cloak of amusement.

“It won’t be much trouble to her to make a fool of Fillingford ­he’s a conceited ass.  She’ll use him as long as she wants him, and then !” He snapped his fingers scornfully.

Had he struck on that explanation for himself?  Possibly ­he had studied Jenny.  Yet it sounded rather like an inspired version of her policy.  The weak spot about it was that, by now, Jenny could have little need of Fillingford ­except in one capacity.  As her husband he could give her a good deal; he could offer her no obvious advantages in any other relation.  I wondered that this did not occur to Octon ­and then decided that it did.  He knew that the argument was weak; he hoped that I would afford it the buttress of my confirmatory opinion.

“Well?” he growled impatiently, for I said nothing.

“I didn’t understand that you asked me a question ­and, if you had, I shouldn’t have answered it.  It’s no business of mine to consider how Miss Driver treats Fillingford or means to treat him.”

At that his temper suddenly gave, his hold on himself was broken.  “But it is of mine, by God!” he cried.

Our eyes met for a moment; then he turned his head away, and a long silence followed.  At last he spoke in a low voice.

“I call other people fools ­I’m a fool myself.  I can’t hold my tongue.  I oughtn’t to be at large.  But it’s pretty hard to bottle it all up sometimes.”  He laid his hand on my knee.  “I shall be obliged if you’ll forget that little remark of mine, Austin.”

“I can’t forget it.  I can take no notice of it,” I said.

“It’s not merely that I gave myself away ­which, after all, doesn’t matter as you happen to be a loyal fellow ­I know that” (he smiled for a moment), “having tried to pump you myself.  But what I said was against a pledge I had given.”

“I wish you hadn’t said it ­most heartily.  I’ll treat it as unsaid ­so far as my allegiance allows.”

“Yes, I see that.  She must come first with you, of course.”

“And with you, too, I hope?”

“In my sort of case a man fights for himself.”

“I’ll say one thing to you ­since you have spoken.  You’d much better go away ­before that year is up.”

He made an impatient gesture with his hands.  “I can’t!” Then he leaned forward and half-whispered, “You put your money on Fillingford?”

“I don’t intend to tell you what I think ­if you can’t gather it from what I’ve said already.”

Again his laugh came ­again sounding more like bravado than real confidence.  “You’re wrong, I can tell you that,” he said.  “I shouldn’t be here if I wasn’t sure of that.”

I had better have said no more, but temptation overcame me.  “I don’t think you are sure of it.”

I expected him to be very angry, I looked for some bluster.  None came.  He shrugged his shoulders and wearily rubbed his brow with his hand.  The case was very plain; he had been told, but he was not sure that he had been told the truth.  Many people might have told him that Jenny meant to marry Fillingford.  Only one on earth could have assured him that she did not.  The assurance had been forthcoming ­not in so many words, perhaps, yet plainly enough to be an assurance for all that.  But was it an assurance of truth?

It grew late, and I took my leave.  Octon put on his hat and walked to the gate with me.  “Come and see me again,” he said.  “I’m always ready for you ­after dinner.  A talk does a man good ­even if he talks like a fool.”

“Yes, I’ll come again ­not that I’ve been very comforting.”

“No, you haven’t.  But then, you see, I don’t believe a word you say.”  He went back to that attitude ­to that obstinate assertion.  It was not for me to argue the question with him; even if my tongue were free, why should I?  He would argue it quite enough ­there at Hatcham Ford, by himself.

“Is that your estimable neighbor?” I asked.  Through the darkness, by help of the street lamp, a man’s figure was visible, standing at the gate of the new house which Jenny had taken for the Institute office.

“That’s the fellow,” said Octon, and he walked on with me.  “Good evening, Mr. Powers,” he said, as we came to the gate.

Powers bade him good evening, and also accorded to me a courteous greeting.  In this hour of leisure he had assumed a pseudo-artistic garb, a soft shirt with trimmings along the front and a turndown collar cut very low, and a voluminous tie worn in an ultra-French fashion; his jacket appeared to be of velveteen, rather a light brown.

“You find me star-gazing, gentlemen,” said he.  “I take delight in it.  The immensity of the heavens!”

“And the littleness of man!  Quite so, Mr. Powers,” said Octon, refilling his pipe.

“These thoughts will come ­sometimes to encourage us, sometimes ­er ­with an opposite effect.”

“Don’t let them discourage you, Powers.  That would be a pity.  After all, the Institute will be pretty big.”

To a refined ear Octon was not treating Powers precisely with respect ­but Powers’s ear was not refined.  He was evidently quite comfortable and at his ease with Octon.  I wondered that Octon cared to chaff him in this fashion, offering what was to Powers a good substitute for friendliness.

“Yes, sir.  Miss Driver is giving us an adequate sphere for our ambitions.  I have longed for one.  Doubtless you have also, Mr. Austin?”

“I’m not very ambitious, Mr. Powers.”

“Wise, sir, wise!  But we can’t help our dispositions.  Mine is to soar!  To soar upward by dint of hard work!  Miss Driver will find I’ve not been idle when she next honors Ivydene with a visit.  You don’t know if she’ll be here to-morrow?”

“Not I,” I answered.  “Miss Driver doesn’t generally tell me what she’s going to do to-morrow.  The boot’s on the other leg ­she tells me what I’m going to do to-morrow.”

“Ha-ha!  Very good, sir, very good!  And she’s a lady one is proud to take orders from.”

“Quite so.  Good night.”  I think I must have spoken rather abruptly, for Powers’s answering “Good night” sounded a little startled.  I really could not bear any more of the fellow.  But Octon ­impatient, irascible, contemptuous Octon ­seemed quite happy in his company.  If he were not the rose, yet ?  No, the proverb really could not be strained to embrace the moral perfume of Powers.

“Good night, Austin.  I’ll stop and smoke half a pipe here with Mr. Powers.”

“You do me honor, Mr. Octon.  But if you’d step inside ­perhaps just a little drop of Scotch, sir?  Don’t say no.  Drink success to the Institute!  One friendly glass!”

What a picture!  Octon drinking success to the Institute with Powers!  But a short time ago I should have deemed it a happily ludicrous inspiration from Bedlam.  To my amazement, though Octon hesitated for a perceptible space, he did not refuse.  He glanced at me, laughed in a rather shamefaced way, and said, “Well, just a minute, and just one glass to the Institute ­since you are so kind, Mr. Powers.”  With a nod to me he turned and followed Powers toward the house.

As I walked home, a picture of the position pieced itself together in my head.  The process was involuntary ­even against my will.  I tried to remind myself all the time of Jenny’s own warning ­how she had accused me of too often imputing to her long-headed cunning, how her actions were, far oftener than I imagined, the outcome of the minute, not the result of calculation or subtle thought.  Yet if in this case she had been subtle and cunning, she might have produced some such combination as now insisted on taking shape before my brain.  For the sake of the neighborhood, and her position and prestige in its eyes, especially for the sake of Fillingford, she had abandoned Octon and had banished him.  But she wanted to see him ­and to see him without creating remark; in plain fact, to see him, if not secretly, yet as privately as she could.  Next, she wished to make progress with the Institute, to establish an office with a clerk, an office where meetings could be held and plans made, and where she could come and see how matters were getting on ­a clerk on whom she could depend to support her, always to be on her side ­a clerk who, as she had said, could not afford to be against her.  Hence came Ivydene ­and Mr. Powers.  Was it mere chance that Ivydene was just opposite Hatcham Ford?  Was Mr. Powers’s support ­that subserviency on which Jenny had playfully laid stress ­desired only against Lady Sarah and other possibly recalcitrant members of the Committee?  If Powers could not afford to oppose her on the Committee’s work, could he afford any the more to thwart her in her private concerns?  Plainly not.  There also he was bound to help.

So the picture formed itself; and the last bit to fit in, and thereby to give completeness, was what I had seen that night ­the strange complaisance of Octon toward the intolerable Powers.  Did Octon smoke his pipe in Powers’s house and drink Powers’s whisky for nothing?  That “friendly glass” ­what was its significance?

This was work for a spy or a detective.  I thrust the idea away from me.  But the idea would not depart.  A man must use his senses ­nay, they use themselves.  The more I sought to banish the explanation, the more insolently it seemed to stare me in the face.  “Pick a hole in me, if you can!” it challenged.  The hole was hard to pick.