Agatha was a little astonished to remember that three weeks had actually elapsed since she had last met him, and they had only exchanged a word or two then. He had certainly not obtruded himself upon her, for which she was grateful.
"Nobody is talking about anything except the fall in prices just now," she persisted. "I suppose it affects you, too?"
The man, who seemed to accept this as a rebuff, looked at her rather curiously, and then laughed.
"It must be admitted that it does. In fact, I've been acquiring parsimonious habits and worrying myself about expenses lately. They have to be kept down somehow, and that's a kind of thing I never took kindly to."
"You feel it a greater responsibility when you're managing somebody else's affairs?" suggested Agatha, who was still waiting her opportunity.
"Well," said Hawtrey, in whom there was, after all, a certain honesty, "that's not quite the only thing that has some weight with me. You see, I'm not altogether disinterested. I get a certain percentage—on the margin—after everything is paid, and I want it to be a big one. Things are rather tight just now, and the wretched mortgage on my place is crippling me."
It had slipped out before he quite realised what he was saying, and he saw the girl's look of astonishment and concern. She now realised what Sproatly had meant.
"You are in debt, Gregory? I thought you had, at least, kept clear of that," she said.
"So I did—for a while. In any case, if Wyllard stays away, and I can run this place on the right lines, I shall, no doubt, get out of it again."
She was vexed that he had said this, for it was clear to her that if Wyllard did not return until another crop was gathered in it would be because he was held fast among the Northern ice in peril of his life. Then another thought struck her. She had never quite understood why Gregory had been willing to undertake the management of the Range, in view of the probability of Wyllard having plainly told him what he had said to her, but he had made that point clear by admitting that he had been burdened with a load of debt, which suggested the question why he had incurred the latter. The answer appeared in another moment or two, as she remembered having heard Mrs. Hastings or somebody else say that he had spent a good many dollars upon his house and furnishings for it. It brought her a sudden sense of confusion, for as one result of that expenditure he had been forced into doing what she fancied must have been a very repugnant thing, and she had never even crossed his threshold.