Meanwhile he judged it well to let the correspondence pass, like any other business correspondence, through his secretary's hands. It was well to let Barbara see that his relations with Mrs. Levitt were on a strictly business footing, that he had nothing to hide. It was well to have copies of the letters. It was well--Mr. Waddington's instinct, not his reason, told him it WA well--to have a trustworthy witness to all these transactions. A witness who understood the precise nature of his conditions, in the event, the highly unlikely event, of trouble with Elise later on. (It was almost as if, secretly, he had a premonition.) Also, when his conscience reproached him, as it did, with making conditions, with asking the dear woman for security, he was able to persuade himself that he didn't really mean it, that all this was clever camouflage designed to turn Barbara's suspicions, if she ever had any, off the scent. And at the same time he was not sorry that Barbara should see him in his role of generous benefactor and shrewd adviser. "I needn't tell you, Barbara, that all this business is strictly private. As my confidential secretary, you have to know a great many things it wouldn't do to have talked about. You understand?" "Perfectly." She understood, too, that it was an end of the compact with Ralph Bevan. She must have foreseen this affair when she said to him there would be things she simply couldn't tell. Only she had supposed they would be things she would see, reward of clear eyesight, not things she would be regularly let in for knowing. And her clear eyes saw through the camouflage. She had a suspicion. "I don't see," she said, "why you should have to go without your rent just because Mrs. Levitt doesn't want to pay it." She was sorry for Waddy. He might be ever so wise about Mrs. Levitt's affairs; but he was a perfect goose about his own. No wonder Fanny had asked her to take care of him. "I've no doubt," he said, "she _wants_ to pay it; but she's a war widow, Barbara, and she's hard up. I can't rush her for the rent." "She's no business to rush you for trellis work and water pipes you didn't order." "Well--well," he couldn't be angry with the child. She was so loyal, so careful of his interests. And he couldn't expect her to take kindly to Elise. There would be a natural jealousy. "That's Palmer and Hoskins's mistake. I can't haggle with a lady, Barbara. _Noblesse oblige_." But he winced under her clear eyes. She thought: "How about the fifty and the five hundred? At this rate _noblesse_ might _oblige_ him to do anything." She could see through Mrs. Levitt. Mr. Waddington kept on looking at the clock.