Pete looked a little grave, but his next sentence explained the cause of his anxiety.
“Wouldn’t you like me to go out and get something to eat, Mother?”
“No, no,” answered his mother, firmly. “This time there really is something in the house quite good. I don’t remember what it is.”
And then Pete, who felt he had done his duty, went off to dress. Soon, however, his voice called from an adjoining room.
“Hasn’t that woman sent back any of my collars, Mother dear?”
“O Pete, her daughter got out of the reformatory only yesterday,” Mrs. Wayne replied. Lanley saw that the Wayne housekeeping was immensely complicated by crime. “I believe I am the only person in your employ not a criminal,” he said, closing the books. “These balance now.”
“Have I anything left?”
“Only about a hundred and fifty.”
She brightened at this.
“Oh, come,” she said, “that’s not so bad. I couldn’t have been so terribly overdrawn, after all.”