Edwin's face changed.
"Why in thunder didn't you say so to start with?" he exclaimed. "I'll see what I can do. Of course I've got a fiver in my pocket-book."
There were a number of men in the town who made a point of always having a reserve five-pound note and a telegraph-form upon their persons. It was the dandyism of well-off prudence.
He sprang out of the room. The door swung to behind him.
In a very few moments he returned.
"Here you are!" he said, taking the note from his pocket-book and adding it to a collection of gold and silver.
Hilda was looking out of the window at the tail of the cab. She did not move.
"I don't want it, thanks," she replied coldly. And she thought: "What a fool I am!"
"Oh!" he murmured, with constraint.
"You'd do it for her!" said Hilda, chill and clear, "But you wouldn't do it for me." And she thought: "Why do I say such a thing?"