“You’ve got to retrench, girl. You’ve got to be more careful.”
“Yes, I suppose I’ve got to.”
“Let’s be practical. How are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know, Tom. It’s so easy to spend and so hard to hold on to your money! If any one had told me a year ago I could get rid of as much money in one year as I have done, I shouldn’t have known how I could do it without opening the window and throwing it out.”
“Well, I’m glad you don’t deny a bent toward extravagance.”
“I don’t deny anything that means I spend a lot of money. I have more sense. The facts are there.”
“You’ve already broken into your capital, haven’t you?”
“Did Hattie tell you that or did you guess? It’s true, I have; but–” she tried to place the harm done in a harmless light–“it isn’t so bad but that if I saved for a little while I could make it up again.”
“If! True; but are you going to, Nell? That’s the question.”
“Oh, Tom, I never ought to have been given any money if I was to hold on to it!” Aurora almost groaned. “I didn’t know at first. I was pleased as Punch. I lay awake nights just to gloat and feel grand. I tell you, I meant to hold on to it! I tell you, it wasn’t going to get away from me after that good fight we made for it! 355But–” the effect of a mental groan was repeated–“the whole thing isn’t as I thought it would be, not a bit.”