That evening Floyd resolves to bring Eugene to a sense of what lies actually before him. He evades at first, fidgets, and grows unmistakably cross.
"The family expenses, Eugene,—how have they been met?" questions the elder steadily.
"They haven't been met at all," says Eugene. "There has only been money enough to pay the men and all that. I told you Laura couldn't have her money. But there was no use breaking up the family,—where could they have gone?"
"I think, then, there has been a good deal of extravagance," is Floyd's decisive comment. "There are five horses in the stable, and four servants. I cannot afford such an establishment."
"Oh, I say, Floyd, don't turn a miserable hunks of a miser the first thing, when you have such a splendid fortune! I wouldn't grudge anything with all that money in my hand."
"Some of it will go rapidly enough. I shall pay Gertrude and Marcia their first instalment, as I have Laura, and my mother must have something. Then, the house debts; do you know where the bills are?"
With Mrs. Grandon's help they get the bills together, and there are some still to come in.
"Of course the house is yours," says his mother in a sharp tone. "You may wish to marry again——"
That is so far from Floyd's thoughts that he shakes his head impatiently and replies,—
"The thing to be considered is who is to provide for the family. If the business cannot do it at present, I shall. But it will have to be done within my income. My own habits are not extravagant——"