“That is all there is to know, Mr Carrados?”
“Yes. Everything comes to an end, Mrs Bellmark. I sent my car away to call for me at eight. Eight has struck. That is Harris announcing his arrival.”
He stood up, but embarrassment and indecision marked the looks and movements of the other two.
“How can we possibly take all this money, though?” murmured Elsie, in painful uncertainty. “It is entirely your undertaking, Mr Carrados. It is the merest fiction bringing me into it at all.”
“Perhaps in the circumstances,” suggested Bellmark nervously—“you remember the circumstances, Elsie?—Mr Carrados would be willing to regard it as a loan——”
“No, no!” cried Elsie impulsively. “There must be no half measures. We know that a thousand pounds would be nothing to Mr Carrados, and he knows that a thousand pounds are everything to us.” Her voice reminded the blind man of the candle-snuffing recital. “We will take this great gift, Mr Carrados, quite freely, and we will not spoil the generous satisfaction that you must have in doing a wonderful and a splendid service by trying to hedge our obligation.”
“But what can we ever do to thank Mr Carrados?” faltered Bellmark mundanely.
“Nothing,” said Elsie simply. “That is it.”
“But I think that Mrs Bellmark has quite solved that,” interposed Carrados.