nteresting observations on the value of
scrapes--the place they hold in life, and how a man--or woman--may turn
them to account. I felt that I knew Jenny better for our quarrel and our
talk.

CHAPTER IV

AN UNPOPULAR MAN

Miss Driver stayed away longer than her words had led me to expect.
London and Paris--the names are in themselves explanation enough. The
big world was entirely new to Jenny; though she could not yet
take--shall I say storm?--her place in society, much instruction, and
more amusement, lay open to her grasp even in the days of her obligatory
mourning. On the other hand that same period could not but be very
tedious to her if passed at Breysgate. In regard to her father's memory
she felt a great curiosity and displayed a profound interest; for the
man himself she could have had little affection and could entertain no
real grief; in fact, though she professed and tried to forgive, she
never shook herself quite clear of resentment, even though she, if
anybody, ought to have come nearest to understanding his stern resolve.
That nobody should ever again come so near to him, or become so much to
him, as to be able sorely to wound him--that was how I read his
determination. Jenny ought to have been able to arrive at some
appreciation of that. I think she did--but she protested in her heart
that his daughter should have been the one exception. No good lay in
going back to the merits of that question. In the result they had
been--strangers: her mourning, then, was a matter of propriety, not the
true demand of her feelings. Viewed in this light, London and Paris,
surveyed from the decent obscurity of a tourist, offered a happy
compromise--and bridged a yawning gulf--between duty and the endurable.

Meanwhile the Great Seal was in Commission; Cartmell, Loft, and I
administered the Kingdom--Cartmell Foreign Affairs, Loft the Interior, I
the Royal Cabinet. Cartmell's sphere was the largest by far--all the
business both of the estate and of the various commercial interests;
Loft's territory was merely the house, but his sense of importance
magnified the weight of his functions; to me fell such of Miss Driver's
work as she did not choose to transact herself. In fact I was kept
pretty busy and was in constant communication with her. In reply to my
letters I received a few notes--very brief ones--and many
telegrams--very decisive ones. As I expected, it was not long before she
took the reins into her own ha