After a pause she said, as if apologetically—
“Keeping a boarding-house isn’t my line. But what could I do? My sister-in-law had it, and I was with her. And when she died... Besides, I dare say I can keep a boarding-house as well as plenty of other people. But—well, it’s no use going into that!”
Edwin abruptly sat down near her.
“Come, now,” he said less harshly, more persuasively. “How much do you owe?”
“Oh!” she cried, pouting, and shifting her feet. “It’s out of the question! They’ve distrained for seventy-five pounds.”
“I don’t care if they’ve distrained for seven hundred and seventy-five pounds!” She seemed just like a girl to him again now, in spite of her face and her figure. “If that was cleared off, you could carry on, couldn’t you? This is just the season. Could you get a servant in, in time for these three sisters?”
“I could get a charwoman, anyhow,” she said unwillingly.
“Well, do you owe anything else?”
“There’ll be the expenses.”
“Of the distraint?”