Oho! thought Miss Bella. “In⁠—deed! That’s it, is it!” For Mr. Mortimer Lightwood had dined there two or three times, and she had met him elsewhere, and he had shown her some attention. “Rather cool in a Secretary⁠—and Pa’s lodger⁠—to make me the subject of his jealousy!”

That Pa’s daughter should be so contemptuous of Pa’s lodger was odd; but there were odder anomalies than that in the mind of the spoilt girl: spoilt first by poverty, and then by wealth. Be it this history’s part, however, to leave them to unravel themselves.

“A little too much, I think,” Miss Bella reflected scornfully, “to have Pa’s lodger laying claim to me, and keeping eligible people off! A little too much, indeed, to have the opportunities opened to me by Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, appropriated by a mere Secretary and Pa’s lodger!”