'You said it was just now,' said Ross, 'six guineas each.
'But it was two guineas that was meant, sir. Six guineas for the lot of them.'
I heard my brother sink into a seat and scrape his feet along the floor, as he does when the burden of life becomes too heavy to be borne standing up.
'Do you mean to say, Sam, that the landlady proposes to provide rooms, beds, food, baths, boots, fires, cruets, and——' here Ross searched violently in his mind for more things which Mrs Tremayne was willing to provide, 'and "Believer's Visions" for two pounds a week each? Why, she's a public benefactor.'
'That's the price, sir. She said she asked six guineas and the lady agreed without arguing, as her lodgers usually do.'
'Well, of course, that's the explanation, Sam. She thought she meant "each."'
'The "she's" me,' I said to myself, to make it clearer in my mind.
'Not a doubt about it, sir,' said Sam.
'Funny things, women,' said my brother reflectively, 'never seem able to make a proper arrangement with a hotel, or book a cabin. The only mess I ever got into on a ship was when I let one of my aunts book my berth going out to—I forget where——'
'Indeed, sir,' said Brown, with interest.