I had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth without her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips. It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot. It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to the largest and most liberal viewI mean of a practical scheme; but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conceptionsuch as a man would not have risen towith singular serenity. "Simply ask them to take you in on the footing of a lodger"I don't think that unaided I should have risen to that.