 Pa does nothing without Mr. Carker, and leaves all to Mr. Carker,
and acts according to Mr. Carker, and has Mr. Carker always at his elbow, and I
do believe that he believes (that washiest of Perches!) that after your Pa, the
Emperor of India is the child unborn to Mr. Carker.«
    Not a word of this was lost on Florence, who, with an awakened interest in
Susan's speech, no longer gazed abstractedly on the prospect without, but looked
at her, and listened with attention.
    »Yes, Susan,« she said, when that young lady had concluded. »He is in Papa's
confidence, and is his friend, I am sure.«
    Florence's mind ran high on this theme, and had done for some days. Mr.
Carker, in the two visits with which he had followed up his first one, had
assumed a confidence between himself and her - a right on his part to be
mysterious and stealthy, in telling her that the ship was still unheard of - a
kind of mildly restrained power and authority over her - that made her wonder,
and caused her great uneasiness. She had no means of repelling it, or of freeing
herself from the web he was gradually winding about her; for that would have
required some art and knowledge of the world, opposed to such address as his;
and Florence had none. True, he had said no more to her than that there was no
news of the ship, and that he feared the worst; but how he came to know that she
was interested in the ship, and why he had the right to signify his knowledge to
her, so insidiously and darkly, troubled Florence very much.
    This conduct on the part of Mr. Carker, and her habit of often considering
it with wonder and uneasiness, began to invest him with an uncomfortable
fascination in Florence's thoughts. A more distinct remembrance of his features,
voice, and manner: which she sometimes courted, as a means of reducing him to
the level of a real personage, capable of exerting no greater charm over her
than another: did not remove the vague impression. And yet he never frowned, or
looked upon her with an air of dislike or animosity, but was always smiling and
serene.
    Again, Florence, in pursuit of her strong purpose with reference to her
father, and her steady resolution to believe that she was herself unwittingly to
blame for their so cold and distant relations, would recall to mind that this
gentleman was his confidential friend
