Kit was satisfied. To know Betty was happy was much; she deserved the best. Then she gave him a thoughtful glance.
"It's strange you didn't know I was coming. Mr. Jefferson wrote to me a month since."
"Of course. He stated he wanted somebody to answer his English letters and undertake general office work, and he understood from you I might take the post."
"I certainly did not tell Jefferson anything like this," said Kit. "I gave Mrs. Austin my mother's letter, in which she said you were ill and must leave the office. But Mrs. Jefferson was with Mrs. Austin, and perhaps they talked about it afterwards."
"Then, giving me the post was _Mrs. Austin's_ plan?" Betty remarked and Kit thought her voice was rather hard.
"I expect it was," he agreed. "Mrs. Austin does things like that. I imagine she persuaded Wolf to send me on board _Mossamedes_."
Betty studied him. She did not think he saw the light he had given her. Sometimes Kit was dull.
"I like Mrs. Jefferson better," Betty replied. She stopped and noting that Kit was puzzled, resumed: "She is kind. So is Mr. Jefferson. When he comes into his office he throws away his cigar. He asks me--Won't I write a note for him and count up the bills. He doesn't think because I'm paid it doesn't matter how he talks. But why did you give Mrs. Austin your mother's letter?"
"Now I think about it, I don't altogether know. She's sympathetic and I was bothered because you were ill. I imagine she saw I was bothered."
"Of course," said Kit. "You were breaking down, and must stop at Liverpool in the rain and cold; I had the sea and sun. Sometimes I was savage because I couldn't help."
"Then you didn't think Mrs. Austin might persuade her husband to give me a post at Las Palmas?"
"I did not. I gave her the letter, that's all. Mrs. Austin likes helping people, and Austin and Jefferson wanted an English clerk. I expect this accounts for their engaging you."
Betty doubted. For one thing, she had met Olivia and two or three young men from the coaling wharfs, who had tried to amuse her by humorous gossip about the English people at Las Palmas. Then Mrs. Austin had sent Kit on board Wolf's steamer, which made longer voyages than the _correillo_, and had persuaded Jefferson to engage her for his clerk. Betty thought Mrs. Austin's object was plain, but wondered much what Kit had said to her. Since she could not find out, she began to talk about Liverpool, and Kit presently narrated his adventures on the African coast.