'Yes, it's the stuff they cooked that's wrong. Can't you do something?' said Ross vaguely. Sam has always seemed to be able to do the things that put our muddles right.
'Well, you see, sir,' said Brown, 'it's a bit awkward; Mrs Ellsley seems to be paying very little, and food is expensive.'
'Have you ever known my sister pay very little for anything if it was possible to pay a lot?'
'No, sir, and that's what I can't understand about it.'
'But how much is she paying, then?' inquired my brother.
'Six guineas, sir.'
'But aren't there always extras in a place like this?' said Ross vaguely, searching his mind for recollections of lodgings at the sea. 'Don't they always make the profits out of—cruets, I think they call it?'
'Miss Margaret don't seem to have gone into any details,' said Brown.
'No,' agreed Ross, 'she wouldn't. But I should have thought you could feed two women and a child better than that for eighteen pounds a week. Well, they'll have to pay more, that's all.'
'But it isn't eighteen pounds,' said Brown.