He reached home much after the dinner-hour. Amy was surprised at his long absence.
‘Got anything?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
It was half his intention to deceive her, to say that the publishers had advanced him five pounds. But that would be his first word of untruth to Amy, and why should he be guilty of it? He told her all that had happened. The result of this frankness was something that he had not anticipated; Amy exhibited profound vexation.
‘Oh, you SHOULDN’T have done that!’ she exclaimed. ‘Why didn’t you come home and tell me? I would have gone to mother at once.’
‘But does it matter?’
‘Of course it does,’ she replied sharply. ‘Mr Carter will tell his wife, and how pleasant that is?’
‘I never thought of that. And perhaps it wouldn’t have seemed to me so annoying as it does to you.’
‘Very likely not.’
She turned abruptly away, and stood at a distance in gloomy muteness.