“And what IS the family news?” the girl after a minute enquired.
“Well, the first great item is that he himself—”
“Wanted,” Nanda broke in, “to borrow five pounds of you? I say that,” she added, “because if he wrote to you—”
“It couldn’t have been in such a case for the simple pleasure of the intercourse?” Vanderbank hesitated, but continued not to look at her. “What do you know, pray, of poor Harold’s borrowings?”
“Oh I know as I know other things. Don’t I know everything?”
“DO you? I should rather ask,” the young man gaily enough replied.
“Why should I not? How should I not? You know what I know.” Then as to explain herself and attenuate a little the sudden emphasis with which she had spoken: “I remember your once telling me that I must take in things at my pores.”
Her companion stared, but with his laugh again changed his posture. “That you’ must—?”
“That I do—and you were quite right.”
“And when did I make this extraordinary charge?”