Thomas groaned still more loudly.
"Matter!" he exclaimed at last, making a mighty effort and resorting to the decanters and cigars. "Matter a deal, Matthew. I dare say," he continued, after he had drunk his potion with a suggestion of its being bitter as aloes, "I dare say I should have been warned, for there's a many proverbs about the frailty and deceit of women. But, of course, never having had aught to do with them I was unarmed for the contest, so to speak."
"Then she's been a-deceiving of you, Thomas?" asked Matthew.
"Deceived me cruel," sighed Thomas. "I shall never believe in that sex again."
Matthew blew out a few spirals of blue smoke before he asked a further question.
"I could hope," he said at last, "I could hope, Thomas, that it were not on the money question?"
Thomas shook his head dolefully, afterwards replenishing his glass.
"It were on the money question, Matthew," he said. "I understood that she'd come to me with a considerable fortune; a very considerable fortune!"
"Well?" asked Matthew, breathlessly.
Thomas spread out his hands with a despairing gesture.