He seemed to think he had been sufficiently confidential. “It’s nice to feel you’ve got a bit of capital behind you,” he said smugly, and Catherine replied: “Yes, very nice.” Then he developed a spurious boisterousness. After tea they walked round all the open-air portions of the establishment. One of the elephants picked up coins off the ground and put them in his keeper’s pocket. Mr. Hobbs threw down a penny. “Clever animal,” he remarked, after the trick had been successfully performed, “but I expect the man keeps the money.” “I daresay he does,” said Catherine. Outside the monkey enclosure he said: “I suppose we were all like this at one time.... Swinging from trees by our tails. That’s what Darwin said, didn’t he?” Afterwards, in Regent’s Park, he became himself again. At Portland Road Underground Station he bought an evening paper and consulted its inside page minutely. “My shares,” he announced, _sotto voce_, as they sat together in the train, “are now worth six hundred and sixty pounds. Another rise, you see.... Nothing like money for making money, is there?” “No,” she replied distantly.... When Catherine got back to Cubitt Lane, Amelia said: “Well--had a good time?” There was something so spiteful in Amelia’s tone that Catherine felt compelled to say: “Oh yes, rather! Had a lovely time! And Mr. Hobbs was awf’ly nice!” § 7 She was in a groove now. The rebuilding of her soul no longer troubled her. She was content to be as she was. Her egoism, her insane self-conceit fell from the lofty plane which had been their sole excuse, and worked in narrower and more selfish channels. In Cubitt Lane she was considered proud and “stuck-up.” She did not associate with the “young fellers up the road,” nor did she frequent the saloon-bar of the King’s Head. In all things she was quiet, aloof and unimpeachably respectable. She was always dressed neatly and well, and she did not possess any dress which, by its showiness and general lack of utility, bore the label “Sundays only.” Now that she was in a district where fine talk was unusual, she began to be vain of her language and accent. To Amelia she was always scornful and consciously aloof: even to Mr. Hobbs she was not loth to betray an attitude of innate superiority. And Mr. Hobbs did not mind it. The more arrogant her mien, the more scornful her tone, the more he singled her out for his preferences and favours.