"I've come to ask you if you'll lend us some money. We're in debt——"
"In debt? Tt-t-t-tt—that's bad."
"I know it is. But we've had illness in the house, and expenses that we had to meet."
"Bless me! Is the boy ill?"
"No; it's not Ted——" But as she tried to explain who it was she broke down utterly, and burst into tears. Then uncle James took off his spectacles and wiped them. He waited till she could speak coherently; and when he had heard, he took his cheque-book out of his drawer, asking no questions and making no comments—for which Katherine respected him.
"How much will clear you, Katherine, and see you to the end of this business?"
"Twenty pounds would clear us; but——"
Uncle James looked very grave, and he wrote with a slow and terrible deliberation. But he smiled lavishly as he handed her a cheque for a hundred guineas. He had made it guineas.
"Remember, there's plenty more where that came from."
"I—I don't know how to thank you, uncle; we'll repay it gradually, with the interest."