Was the fellow going to jilt her? He longed to go and say to him: “Look here, you sir! Are you going to jilt my granddaughter?” But how could he? Knowing little or nothing, he was yet certain, with his unerring astuteness, that there was something going on. He suspected Bosinney of being too much at Montpellier Square.

“This fellow,” he thought, “may not be a scamp; his face is not a bad one, but he’s a queer fish. I don’t know what to make of him. I shall never know what to make of him! They tell me he works like a nigger, but I see no good coming of it. He’s unpractical, he has no method. When he comes here, he sits as glum as a monkey. If I ask him what wine he’ll have, he says: ‘Thanks, any wine.’ If I offer him a cigar, he smokes it as if it were a twopenny German thing. I never see him looking at June as he ought to look at her; and yet, he’s not after her money. If she were to make a sign, he’d be off his bargain tomorrow. But she won’t⁠—not she! She’ll stick to him! She’s as obstinate as fate⁠—She’ll never let go!”

Sighing deeply, he turned the paper; in its columns, perchance he might find consolation.