"Quite seriously."
"Dear me. This is very distressing. Very distressing indeed. But you would not take such a step without consulting your friends?"
"I am consulting you."
"Yes, yes. But have you thought it well over?"
"Thinking isn't any use. I shall have to, unless something can be done."
He thought: "Financial difficulties. Debts. An expensive lady. Unless something could be done?" He didn't know that he was exactly prepared to do it. But his tongue answered in spite of him.
"Something must be done. We can't let you go like this, my dear lady."
"That's it. I don't see how I can go, with dear Toby here. Nor yet how
I'm to stay."
"Won't you tell me what the trouble is?"
"The trouble is that Mrs. Trinder's son's just been demobilized, and she wants our rooms for his wife and family."