"Someone has been here—just gone; I heard a footstep; I know it. Derrick has been here."
He would have lied to her if he had thought she would have believed the lie.
"Yes," he said. "He has just gone. He—he came to say good-bye."
"Good-bye!" she repeated, her brows knitting with perplexity and trouble. "Is he going? Where? Why? Didn't you tell him that Mr. Brand, the lawyer, had—had paid the money and settled everything? Oh, if I had only known it when I went to Derrick; if the letter had only come before, so that I could have told him there was no need for him to fear any—any trouble! But you told him, Percy?"
"Yes, of course I told him," he said, staring at his boots; "but he had made up his mind to go abroad; and—and, 'pon my soul, I think it's the best thing he could do."
She looked down on him with a face still showing trouble and doubt.
"But—but, Percy, he hadn't any money; he admitted as much to me. And I couldn't give him any."
"That's all right," he said, clearing his throat. "I—I saw to that. I couldn't give him much, unfortunately; but I scraped together all I'd got. It will leave us pretty short of coin for a bit, Miriam."
She went to him quickly, put her arm round his shoulder, and, bending, kissed him. "You did! That was good of you; it was like you, Percy—after all that he has done, and the trouble he might have got you into. I'm glad you gave him all you'd got; and I don't mind running short."
Her cheeks were wet and wetted his; he drew his hand across his face with barely-concealed impatience and annoyance.