Part 35 (2/2)

Poor Jimmy If the house had not sufficiently up till now materialized out of his fancy as a possession, it declared itself at once, without doubt, as soland, luckily----

”Well,” he exclai I should like to buy that property You could surely spare me this little corner of Glousceshi+re”

”Spare it!” cried Westboro', ” to have you a landlord here! To catch and hold you so! We'll go over the whole place together My agent shall put the h for you”

”Good God, no!” said Bulstrode, ”don't let your o up like a rocket in price If you really yourself care to withdraw as much as possible, that's the most you can do But for God's sake keep off the place, like a good fellow”

Behind his long itated friend

”I'll keep off the grass until the turf is all your own, my dear Bulstrode”

”Thanks!” said the other cordially, and sat back with a sigh of relief

”There,” he reflected peacefully, ”my presence is explained--it's quite perfect I shall be a landowner in England At all events, it's lucky the property is syet balled up in this affair in, let us say, _New Jersey_, and find myself forced to purchase the Hackensack Meadows

”Did the old house look deserted?” asked the Duke wickedly

”Oh, rather!” replied the other gentleman

”Really!” wondered Westboro' ”Why, they tell n lady”

Bulstrode, whether at his own lie or at the shock of his coe, blushed, and his friend saw him redden And the Duke, in whom candor was a charm, stared at his friend, half-opened his estiveness of the whole affair rushed over him so rapidly that he had not time to ask himself whether he credited his suspicions or not

”Good heavens! _Jie!” He looked at the face of theforwards, addressed so the Duke's eyes If it were not a vulgar intrigue, what could it be? How difficult it grew to connect such a _liason_ with his friend But as he thought on, the Duke began to ask why, after all, should it be so extraordinary! Why should he suppose Jimmy so unlike the rest of his set? More scrupulous, more sinless than other men--than himself? He couldn't answer his own question, but he did so think of Bulstrode, and since his late house party had believed that Jimmy cared for Mrs Falconer The lady at The Dials was certainly not she

Bulstrode, in the shadow of this delinquence, surrounded certainly in the ue, becaly human In theirin a clearer at by Bulstrode's mode of life, points of view and principles, his own life had seeht it to be

And although Jimmy had never breathed a word of criticisentle codes

By the time he had reached this point in his reflections the motor had stopped at one of the side doors of the castle

”There is, of course, some perfectly proper explanation--” the Duke decided It's a harmless flirtation, if any flirtation at all

Perhaps it's a beneficent bit of benevolence; at any rate it's Ji to _buy_ the property--perhaps he's going to marry Why not?

Ashamed to have placed his friend, if only moot out of the car and put an affectionate hand on the American's shoulder

”Oh, I expect, old ot so to be married and fetch your bride to The Dials”

Poor Bulstrode unfortunately echoed: ”_Married_!” with a world of scorn in his tone ”My poor Westboro,' after what I've lately seen and heard here--forgive me if I say that for the time at least I'reeted her, ”you appear to be intending to live here forever, you'll welco back for Christmas, but if I don't run in before you'll understand, won't you, that it is because I simply haven't dared

Westboro' has already seen me cut across to this place”

The duchess interrupted hied to reed with her