‘There, there. Don’t turn on the waterworks, Bunn. I thought Mrs Alfred had been cut up about something; but I wasn’t sure—that’s why I asked you, Bunn; though I think, perhaps, you needn’t name this conversation either in the servants’ hall, or tell any one else what you have told me. Yes, you may go past now. But—stop a minute, Bunn—here’s something else that you needn’t name in the servants’ hall.’
The something else was a half-sovereign.
‘It was worth it, too,’ said Granville, when the girl was gone; ‘she has given me something to go upon. These half-educated and impulsive people always do let out more to their maids than to any one else.’
He went back to Alfred.
‘There was something I forgot to ask you. How much money do you suppose Gladys had about her when she went away?’
‘I have no idea,’ said Alfred.
‘Do you know how much money you have given her since you have been over—roughly?’
‘No; I don’t know at all.’
‘Think, man. Fifty pounds?’
‘I should say so. I gave her a note or so whenever it struck me she might want it. She never would ask.’