"That's well. Just at this moment I seem to care about Mr. Barry more than any other trouble. But I fear that he has forgotten me altogether,—which is not complimentary."
"Mr. Barry will turn up all in proper time," said her father. "I have got nothing to say about Mr. Barry just at present, so if you are love-lorn you had better go to bed."
"Very well. When I am love-lorn I will. Now, what have you got to tell me?"
"I have lent a man a large sum of money,—two hundred and twenty-seven pounds!"
"You are always lending people large sums of money."
"I generally get it back again."
"From Mr. Carroll, for instance,—when he borrows it for a pair of breeches and spends it in gin-and-water."
"I never lent him a shilling. He is a burr, and has to be pacified, not by loans but gifts. It is too late now for me to prevent the brother-in-lawship of poor Carroll."
"Who has got this money?"
"A professed gambler, who never wins anything, and constantly loses more than he is able to pay. Yet I do think this man will pay me some day."