‘With pleasure.’
‘Au revoir, then.’ Frank ran all the way home, and burst in upon his wife. ‘It is not so very bad, dear—only fifty pounds.’ They danced about in their joy like two children.
But Wingfield came to his lunch within a solemn face.
‘I am very sorry to disappoint you,’ he said, ‘but the matter is more serious than I thought. We have entered some sums as unpaid which he has really received, but the receipts for which he has held back. They amount to another hundred pounds.’
Maude felt inclined to cry as she glanced at Frank, and saw his resolute effort to look unconcerned.
‘Then it’s a hundred and fifty.’
‘Certainly not less. I have marked the items down upon this paper for your inspection.’
Frank glanced his practised eyes over the results of the accountant’s morning’s work.
‘You have credited him within a hundred and twenty pounds in the bank, I see.’
‘Yes, his bank-book shows a balance of that amount.’