“Don’t laugh, Bill dear; for you’ll be so upset when you know.”
“Shall I, Betsey?” he said seriously. “Then I won’t laugh.”
“You see, I went down to Piper’s to order some fresh things for the storeroom, as I’d been through this morning, when Mr Piper himself came to wait upon me, and he told me he’d been down to the schools for the children’s pence for the year, and that Mr Chute had paid, and that Miss Thorne didn’t, but owned that she had spent all the money.”
“What! the school pence?”
“Yes, dear; and after a time he said that the Thornes were a good deal in debt with him besides.”
“More shame for him. I never went shouting it out to other folks if any one was in my debt. But, Betsey, did he say Miss Thorne had—had spent the money!”
“Yes, dear; and it was so shocking.”
Mr William Forth Burge stood rubbing and smoothing his fat round face over with his hand for a few moments, his sister watching him eagerly the while, like one who looks for help from the superior wisdom of another.
“I don’t believe it,” said the great man at last.
“You don’t believe it, Bill?”