“I am so glad you have come back, Phil,” she said. “I shall sleep better now that I have seen you. I hear that Lord Grayleigh has offered you the post of engineer on the board of the Lombard Deeps Mine Company.”
Ogilvie did not answer. After a moment’s pause he said in a sullen tone—
“Had you not better go to bed? It is much too late for you to be up.”
“What does that matter? I am far too excited to sleep, and it is wrong of you to keep things of moment from your wife. This offer means a large addition to our income. Why, Phil, Phil, we can buy a country place now; we can do, oh! so many things. We can pay those terrible debts that worry you. What is the matter? Aren’t you pleased? Why do you frown at me? And you are pale, are you ill?”
“Come into my smoking-room,” he said, gravely. He took her hand and, drawing her in, switched on the electric light. Then he turned his wife round and looked full at her.
“This will make a great difference in our position,” she said. Her eyes were sparkling, her cheeks were flushed, her pearly teeth showed between her parted lips.
“What do you mean by our position?” he said.
“You know perfectly well that we have not money enough to keep up this house; it is a struggle from first to last.”
“And yet I earn close on six thousand a year, Mildred. Have you never considered that you are the person who makes it a struggle?”
“It is impossible; impossible to manage,” she said, petulantly.