'You're not short, my dear?' Hannah asked at the end in an anxious voice.
'Not he!' Uncle Meshach testily ejaculated, fastening the button of that droll necktie of his.
'Oh dear no!' said Leonora, with such dignity as she could assume.
As she walked home she wondered what 'speculation' really was. She could not have defined the word. She possessed but a vague idea of its meaning. She had long apprehended, ignorantly and indifferently and uneasily, that John was in the habit of tampering with dangerous things called stocks and shares. But never before had the vital import of these secret transactions been revealed to her. The dramatic swiftness of the revelation stunned her, and yet it seemed after all that she only knew now what she had always known.
When she reached home John was already in the hall, taking off his overcoat, though the hour of one had not struck. Was this a coincidence, or had he been unable to control his desire to learn what she had done?
In silence she smiled plaintively at him, shaking her head.
'What do you mean?' he asked harshly.
'I couldn't arrange it,' she said. 'Uncle Meshach refused.'
John gave a scarcely perceptible start. 'Oh! That!' he exclaimed. 'That's all right. I've fixed it up.'
'This morning?'