Yet it was not so very long ago that Bella had been fluttered by the discovery that this same Secretary and lodger seem to like her. Ah! but the eminently aristocratic mansion and Mrs. Boffin’s dressmaker had not come into play then.

In spite of his seemingly retiring manners a very intrusive person, this Secretary and lodger, in Miss Bella’s opinion. Always a light in his office-room when we came home from the play or opera, and he always at the carriage-door to hand us out. Always a provoking radiance too on Mrs. Boffin’s face, and an abominably cheerful reception of him, as if it were possible seriously to approve what the man had in his mind!

“You never charge me, Miss Wilfer,” said the Secretary, encountering her by chance alone in the great drawing-room, “with commissions for home. I shall always be happy to execute any commands you may have in that direction.”