Evelyn rose in an access of helpless impatience.
"But if I can't do that, what can I do?" she cried. "I've got to do something—somehow, don't you see? Some of them are beginning to bother me already, and—it frightens me."
A long silence followed upon her simple, impassioned statement of the case. Miss Kresney was meditating a startling possibility.
"There is only one thing that I can suggest," she ventured at length, "and that is I could lend you some money myself. I haven't a great deal. But if three hundred rupees would help you to settle some of the bills, I would feel only too proud if you would take it. There will be no interest to pay; and you could let me have it back in small sums just whenever you could manage it."
With a gasp of incredulity Evelyn sank back into her chair.
"D'you mean that?"
"Of course I do."
"Oh, Miss Kresney, I don't know why you should be so kind to me! How can I take such a lot of money—from you?"
"Why not, if I am glad to give it?"