"Long ago," Sophy replied. "I have been finishing your accounts."
Louise made a little grimace.
"Tell me the worst," she begged.
"You are overdrawn at your bank, your bills are heavier than ever this month, and there are five or six special accounts—one for some electric fittings, another for the hire of a motor-car—which ought to be paid."
"People are always wanting money!" Louise declared pettishly.
"People always will want money," Sophy retorted, "so long as you earn three thousand a year and spend four or five thousand!"
Louise selected a cigarette and lit it.
"Instead of scolding me, child," she yawned, "suppose you suggest something?"
"What is there to suggest?" Sophy replied. "Your bank has written you to put your overdraft straight at once—it comes to about two hundred and seventy pounds. There are bills, for which the people are asking for payment, and which come to about as much again. You've nothing but your hundred pounds a week, and you're spending half of that, as it is."
Louise flicked the ash from her cigarette.