It added to Mrs. Robinson's unrest and disquiet to know, as she had done through Wantley, now--oh, irony!--the only link between herself and Kingpole Farm, that Downing and Winfrith had met more than once. The interviews, or so she gathered from her cousin, had been, from Downing's point of view, satisfactory, but she longed feverishly to know more--to learn how David Winfrith had comported himself, what impression he had made on the older man. It was significant that Penelope never gave a thought as to how Downing had impressed Winfrith. To her mind the matter could not admit of doubt--his personality must dominate all those with whom it came into contact. Neither man knew of her relation, past or present, to the other. Still, she felt a longing to be assured that all had gone well between them. It added to her vague discomfort that Wantley, when telling her of what had been the first meeting between the two men, had given her a quick, penetrating look from out his half-closed eyes, and then had glanced away in obvious embarrassment. Well, she would soon have to see Winfrith, for on him she counted--and she never saw the refinement of cruelty involved--to make smooth, as regarded certain material matters, the path before her. Mrs. Robinson wished to begin her new life stripped, as far as might be possible, of all that must recall to her that which had come and gone since she was Penelope Wantley. She hoped that by giving up the great fortune left by her husband, she might blot out the recollection, not only of poor Melancthon Robinson, for whose memory she had ever felt a certain impatient kindliness, but also of David Winfrith, to whom her tie of late years had been so close, though of that she had told Downing nothing. This intention of material renouncement had not been imagined in the first instance by Penelope--the Robinson fortune had cost her so little and had been hers so long! But Downing, during one of their first intimate talks and discussions concerning the future, had assumed that, on her return to England, she would at once begin arranging for its dispersion, and she had instantly accepted the idea, and felt herself eager to act on it. Indeed, she had said after a short pause, and it was the first time that she had mentioned to this new friend and still unfamiliar lover, the oldest of her friends and the most familiar of her lovers, 'David Winfrith will help me about it all.' 'The new Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs?' he had asked, and she had answered quickly: 'Yes, his father is one of the trustees of the Settlement, and he has helped me a good deal over it.' No more had then been said, and since her return to England Mrs. Robinson had done nothing concerning the matter.