’I can’t be sure.  Perhaps it was she that disliked me, more than I did her.  For one thing, I don’t believe that people make such plots.  And what plotting was needed?  Couldn’t any one have told you what a girl like Fanny French would do if she lost her head among people of a higher class?’

’Then Mrs. Damerel must have foreseen it.  That’s just what I say.  She pretended to be a friend to the girl, on purpose to ruin her.’

‘Have you accused her of it?’

‘Yes, I have.’  His eyes flashed.  Nancy marvelled at this fire, drawn from a gentle nature by what seemed to her so inadequate, so contemptible a cause.  ’Of course she denied it, and got angry with me; but any one could see she was glad of what had happened.  There’s an end between us, at all events.  I shall never go to see her again; she’s a woman who thinks of nothing but money and fashion.  I dislike her friends, every one of them I’ve met.  I told her that what she had done ought to be a punishable crime.’

Nancy reflected, then said quietly: 

’Whether you are right or wrong, I don’t think you would have got any good from her.  But will you tell me what you are going to do?  I told you that I thought borrowing money only to live on it in idleness was very foolish.’

Her brother stiffened his neck.

‘You must allow me to judge for myself.’

’But have you judged for yourself?  Wasn’t it by Mrs. Damerel’s advice that you gave up business?’

‘Partly.  But I should have done it in any case.’

‘Have you any plans?’

‘No, I haven’t,’ he answered.  ’You can’t expect a man to have plans whose life has been thoroughly upset.’

Nancy, reminded of his youthfulness by the tone in which he called himself a ‘man,’ experienced a revival of natural feeling.  Though revolting against the suggestion that a woman akin to them had been guilty of what her brother believed, she was glad to think that Fanny French had relinquished all legitimate claim upon him, and that his connection with ‘smart’ society had come to an end.  Obvious enough were the perils of his situation, and she, as elder sister, recognised a duty towards him; she softened her voice, and endeavoured to re-establish the confidence of old time.  Impossible at once, though with resolution she might ultimately succeed.  Horace, at present, was a mere compound of agitated and inflamed senses.  The life he had been leading appeared in a vicious development of his previously harmless conceit and egoism.  All his characteristics had turned out, as it were, the seamy side; and Nancy with difficulty preserved her patience as he showed point after point of perverted disposition.  The result of their talk was a careless promise from Horace that he would come to Grove Lane not seldomer than once a week.

He stayed only an hour, resisting Nancy’s endeavour to detain him at least for the mid-day meal.  To Mary he spoke formally, awkwardly, as though unable to accept her position in the house, and then made his escape like one driven by an evil spirit.