"And now," said she, "how about that sixty pounds?"
The badgered one produced a pocket-book and took three twenty-pound notes from it.
"That leaves me only three pounds ten," said he, taking the coins from his waistcoat pocket and exhibiting them as he handed over the notes.
Miss Grimshaw cast a hungry eye on the gold.
"When that's gone," said she, "I will have to allow you pocket money out of my household expenses. We are in exactly the position of shipwrecked people on a raft, with only a certain amount of food and water, and when people are in that condition the first thing they have to do is to put themselves on a strict allowance. I want you," said Miss Grimshaw, "to feel that you are on a raft—and it might be much worse. You have a house for which we have to pay no rent. You have wine and all that which need not be paid for yet. How about cigars and tobacco?"
"Oh, there's lots of smokes," said French rather drearily. "And Bewlays know me, and I can get anything I want on credit—only I'm thinking——"
"Yes?"
"There may be other expenses. In a place like this people are sure to call, and how about if they want to play bridge, or——"
"Don't let's think of it," said the girl. "Bother! Why couldn't it have been summer?"
"They play bridge in summer as well as winter."