Au contraire, Bunter does rather well in Ali Baba - an annuity of £500 a year, and the lease of the flat (which either must mean the leasehold OR the rent must cost an awful lot less, given that his continuing to live there not being really weird is a requirement of the plot).

Question: had the chessmen not been smashed, and Harriet turned Peter down, would she have felt obliged to return them? Or is asking for them essentially saying that she's not, ultimately, going to turn him down?