’Well enough.  It’s all the same to me if I have my books, and a field to walk in —­ and if you don’t want me to see too many women.’

Alma laughed gaily, and had done with semblance of hesitation.

They began to search for a house, and in a week’s time had found one, newly built, which seemed to answer their requirements.  It was at Pinner, not many minutes by rail from Alma’s friends at Kingsbury-Neasden, and only about half an hour from Baker Street —­ ’so convenient for the concerts’.  A new house might be damp, but the summer months were hastening to dry it, and they would not enter into residence before the end of autumn.  ‘We must go and enjoy our heather,’ said Alma brightly.  The rent was twice what Harvey had been paying; there was no stabling, but Alma agreed that they ought not to keep a horse, for naturally there would be ‘other expenses’.

Other expenses, to be sure.  But Harvey signed the three years’ lease without misgiving.  A large surplus lay in hand after the ‘simple life’ in Carnarvonshire, and his position was not that of men who have extravagant wives.

CHAPTER 5

The Leach family gave it to be understood by their friends that they had moved out of town because of Mrs. Leach’s health.  Other explanations were suspected; for the new establishment seemed to be on a more modest footing than that in Elgin Road, and the odd arrangement whereby Mr Leach came home only on Saturday could not be without significance.  Mrs Leach, it was true, suffered from some obscure affection of the nerves, which throughout the whole of her married life had disabled her from paying any continuous regard to domestic affairs; this debility had now reached such a point that the unfortunate lady could do nothing but collapse in chairs and loll on sofas.  As her two daughters, though not debilitated, had never dreamt of undertaking household management, all such matters were left to a cook-housekeeper, changed every few months, generally after a quarrel, wherein Mrs. Leach put forth, for an invalid, very surprising energy.  Mr. Leach, a solicitor, had no function in life but to toil without pause for the support of his family in genteel leisure; he was a mild man, dreading discord, and subservient to his wife.  For many years he had made an income of about L2000, every penny of which, excepting a small insurance premium, had been absorbed by expenses of the house.  At the age of fifty, prematurely worn by excessive labour, he was alarmed to find his income steadily diminishing, with no corresponding diminution —­ but rather the opposite —­ in the demands made upon him by wife and daughters.  In a moment of courage, prompted by desperation, he obtained the consent of Dora and Gerda to this unwelcome change of abode.  It caused so much unpleasantness between himself and Mrs. Leach, that he was glad to fit up a sleeping-room at his office and go home only once a week; whereby he saved time, and had the opportunity of starving himself as well as of working himself to death.