“Well, it’s an awful matter. You see, I have rather a big bill with a dressmaker, and I wanted some more new frocks for the Ocklebournes’ parties. She has refused to give me any more credit without security, so I left some jewelry with her—old-fashioned stuff that I never wear.”
“But, my darling, that was practically raising money on heirlooms. Your father distinctly warned 61 you that the jewels were only lent. They are his, not yours.”
“John, how can you side with father in that way? They are mine, of course they are. I’m not pawning them. They are just security, that’s all.”
“It is the same thing, dear one. You certainly ought to get them back.”
“It isn’t a question of getting them back, John. The woman threatens to sell them, unless I can let her have a thousand dollars.”
“Such a sum is out of the question. You must persuade the woman to wait.”
“That is why I was going up to town to-day. But my debt far exceeds that sum.”
“By how much?”
The rector rarely demanded any details of his wife’s money-affairs, or troubled how she spent her private income. But the time for ceremony was past. There was a haggard perplexity in his look, and an expression of fear in his eyes.
“Nearly two thousand, John.”