Oliver stared down at the piece of paper. Insensibly he straightened his shoulders as if to meet calmly a physical blow. "Are these pounds?" he asked.
She nodded.
"But Bella, it's an enormous sum,—over four thousand."
"I suppose it is," she said listlessly.
Her husband put the paper in his breast pocket; then he hesitated a moment, and Bella thought he was perhaps going to hand her back the envelope and its contents. But that also, to her chagrin, disappeared into his pocket.
"I suppose the money Buck brought you to-day is included in this amount?"
Bella shook her head sadly. "I hadn't time to put it down," she said.
"Well, I'll see what can be done."
"I suppose you mean to pay it all back? I suppose"—her voice was trembling with self-pity—"that we shall have to go and live in the country now?"
He said nothing,—only looked at her with that same cold look of surprise and alienation.