“My dear Charles, I have a great many expenses of which you know nothing at all! You are being absurd, you know!”
“I do not think that you have any expenses which your father would be unprepared to meet.”
She was silent for a moment. Then she said, “You have not yet told me what is the second of the reasons that occurred to you.”
He looked at her under frowning brows. “My fear is that you have lent the money to Hubert.”
“Good gracious! Banish it!” she exclaimed, laughing. “Pray, why should I do such a thing?”
“I hope you have not. The young fool was at Newmarket with a set of fellows I could wish at Jericho. Did he lose a large sum there?”
“Surely he would tell you if he had, rather than me!”
He walked over to his desk and rather absently tidied some papers that lay on it. “It may have been that he was afraid to,” he said. He looked up. “Was that it?”
“I needed the money for reasons into which I will not take you,” she replied. “I must point out to you, Charles, that you have not yet answered my other question. How did you guess that I had sold the earrings?”
“It was not a conjecture. I knew.”