“Perhaps.”

“Good heavens,” she said, “won’t you argue with me?”

“No, I’ll leave that to Bertha.”

“All right, I’ll take care of Bertha.”

I said, “You might sing a different tune if Bertha swears out a complaint for you on the ground of giving a cheque for which there were not sufficient funds.”

“I had sufficient funds when I gave the cheque. It isn’t my fault if something happened.”

“Not the way the bank talks. The bank says they only took that cheque you deposited for collection; that you had no right to draw on it until after it had cleared.”

“They didn’t tell me that when I deposited the cheque. They took it in and credited my account in the pass-book. I can show you.”

“Let’s take a look.”

She hesitated a moment, then got up and went into the bedroom.