Up to now, the occupants of the big house and I had been enemies, open and confessed.

I had, so far as possible, kept out of their way and hoped they would keep out of mine.

But now the situation was more complicated.

I did not know what to expect.

Of course there was no chance of our becoming friends.
The difference in social position, as they reckoned it, made that too ridiculous to consider as a possibility, even if I wished it, which I distinctly did not.