"He had learnt the profession of begging, and isn't ashamed to practise it. I think he might wait until Miss Sophy is dead."
"Percy has no moral sense," said George, with the utmost severity. "He has visited here, and I have entertained him; but he has never given me anything except superciliousness, and on one occasion a cigar which was useless except as a germicide. I have never yet heard your opinion of him."
"He's a name and nothing else," she said.
"I did have an idea he wanted to be something to you."
"What rubbish! He never even looked at me properly. When he didn't gaze at my boots he stared over my head; and he spoke to me like a gramophone."
"You didn't exactly like him?" George suggested.
"You never looked at him softly with your nice blue eyes?"
"They seem very blue sometimes, but I'm not good at colours. I am glad you don't like Percy. It has removed a great weight from my mind. I had a dreadful suspicion, Nellie, and--and I was afraid it might interfere with my sleep; but I won't say anything more about it now. Don't you think we had better meet this evening, when it is getting dusk," George rambled on heavily, "and go a little walk, and talk about plans?"
"I have no plans," said Nellie. "I shall just go on living here until Miss Yard dies, and then I shall pack up my belongings--including the round table in the parlour--and disappear from Highfield forever."
"Not you," said George. "I have a quantity of plans, Nellie; a lot for you as well as for myself."
"Can't you speak while we stand here in the sunshine?"
"It would be easier if we were walking about in the dark."
"That might be bad for me," she reminded him. "When a couple talk in the dark, other couples talk about them. I will listen to some of your plans--with a decided preference for those about myself. You shall tell me four," she said, tapping the first finger of her right hand. "What is plan number one?"
"About Aunt Sophy," replied George promptly:
"Unless there's a sudden change in temperature," murmured Nellie, "I am to be frozen out again."
"Just as I expected, and perhaps a little more," she answered.
"Aunt Sophy must die," said George firmly. "That sad event should happen any time now. The first plan is to get rid of her."