tell him that she sighed because she could only consent to
love him instead of offering to do so. While he was sunk in his daily
growing ease she was again thinking of ultimate ends and despised
herself a little for it. She had to be alone for a while before she
could regain self-control, remember the terrible tyranny of man and her
resolve to be free. Gentle Jack was a man, one of the oppressors, and as
such he must be used as an instrument against his sex. The very ease
with which she swayed him, with which she could foresee her victory,
unnerved her a little. When she answered his hesitating question as to
how much she needed to live, she had to force herself to lie, to trade
on his enslavement by asking him for two thousand a year. She dared to
name the figure, for Whitaker told her that the only son of an intestate
takes two-thirds of the estate; the book had also put her on the track
of the registration of joint-stock companies. A visit to Somerset House
enabled her to discover that some three hundred thousand shares of
Holt's Cement Works, Ltd., stood in the name of John Holt; as they were
quoted in the paper something above par he could hardly be worth less
than fifteen thousand a year.

She had expected to have to explain her needs, to have to exaggerate her
rent, the cost of her clothes, but Holt did not say a word beyond 'all
right.' She had told him it hurt her to take money from him; and that,
so as to avoid the subject, she would like him to tell his bankers to
pay the monthly instalments into her account. He had agreed and then
talked of their trip to the South. Clearly the whole matter was
repugnant to him. As neither wanted to talk about it the subject was
soon almost forgotten.

They left England early in December after shutting up the house.
Victoria did not care to leave it in charge of Laura, so decided to give
her a three months' holiday on full pay; Augusta accompanied them. The
sandy-haired German was delighted with the change in the fortunes of her
mistress. She felt that Holt must be very rich, and doubted not that her
dowry would derive some benefit from him. Snoo and Poo were left in
Laura's charge. Victoria paid a quarter's rent in advance, also the
rates; insured against burglary, and left England as it settled into the
winter night.

The next three months were probably the most steadily happy she had ever
known. They had taken a small house known as the Villa Mehari just
outside Algier