She was conscious of a
feeling that nothing was quite perfect in this world. It would be
nice to have a great deal of money, for she had a scheme in her
mind which called for a large capital; but she was sorry that it
could come to her only through the death of her uncle, of whom,
despite his somewhat forbidding personality, she had always been
fond. She was also sorry that a large sum of money was coming to
Nutty at that particular point in his career, just when there
seemed the hope that the simple life might pull him together. She
knew Nutty too well not to be able to forecast his probable
behaviour under the influence of a sudden restoration of wealth.
While these thoughts were passing through her mind she happened to
glance out of the window. Nutty was shambling through the garden
with his pail, a bowed, shuffling pillar of gloom. As Elizabeth
watched, he dropped the pail and lashed the air violently for a
while. From her knowledge of bees ('It is needful to remember that
bees resent outside interference and will resolutely defend
themselves,' _Encyc. Brit._, Vol. III, AUS to BIS) Elizabeth
deduced that one of her little pets was annoying him. This episode
concluded, Nutty resumed his pail and the journey, and at this
moment there appeared over the hedge the face of Mr John Prescott,
a neighbour.
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