Archer moved toward the mantelpiece and bent over to knock his ashes into the grate.
“I don’t know anything of Madame Olenska’s private affairs; but I don’t need to, to be certain that what you insinuate—”
“Oh, I don’t: it’s Lefferts, for one,” Mr. Jackson interposed.
“Lefferts—who made love to her and got snubbed for it!” Archer broke out contemptuously.
“Ah— did he?” snapped the other, as if this were exactly the fact he had been laying a trap for. He still sat sideways from the fire, so that his hard old gaze held Archer’s face as if in a spring of steel.
“Well, well: it’s a pity she didn’t go back before Beaufort’s cropper,” he repeated. “If she goes now , and if he fails, it will only confirm the general impression: which isn’t by any means peculiar to Lefferts, by the way.”
“Oh, she won’t go back now: less than ever!” Archer had no sooner said it than he had once more the feeling that it was exactly what Mr. Jackson had been waiting for.
The old gentleman considered him attentively. “That’s your opinion, eh? Well, no doubt you know. But everybody will tell you that the few pennies Medora Manson has left are all in Beaufort’s hands; and how the two women are to keep their heads above water unless he does, I can’t imagine. Of course, Madame Olenska may still soften old Catherine, who’s been the most inexorably opposed to her staying; and old Catherine could make her any allowance she chooses. But we all know that she hates parting with good money; and the rest of the family have no particular interest in keeping Madame Olenska here.”