“I’m afraid you’ve not had a good time. You look all used up! Wasn’t the visit as nice as you expected?”
Mrs Moffatt threw herself down on a chair with a sigh of impatience.
“Oh, my dear, I am so rattled! Every mortal thing’s gone wrong from start to finish. Don’t ask me about it, for it don’t bear speaking of. My head aches fit to split, and now Silas has taken the huff and marched off goodness knows where, and there’s a man sitting down in the hall refusing to go away until he gets his money, and disgracing me before the whole hotel. It’s for those furs I had sent in the other day. I decided to keep them, and mailed them to a friend in the country to house for me. I can’t be worried with a lot of goods in a hotel, so she gives me store-room until we sail. That’s where I’m fixed-up, you see. I can’t give him either the goods or the money, and when Silas turns ugly, goodness only knows when he may come back. Maybe not till late at night. I’m so mortified I don’t know what to do.”
Cornelia laughed easily.
“Don’t you worry. It’s as easy as pie. I’ll give you a cheque, and Mr Moffatt can pay me back in the morning. I’ll go and write it out for you now. What’s the damage?”
“Two hundred pounds; Fredburg and Company. You are an angel, Cornelia! I ken’t begin to thank you.”
“Don’t try, please! What does it matter for a few hours?” cried Cornelia, brightly. She went into her own room, made out the cheque, and handed it to her friend, who promptly carried it away, to return at the expiration of five minutes with a sigh of relief.
“That was one for him. He looked kinder small when he saw your name on the cheque. It’s real sweet of you, dear, and Silas will pay up like a lamb when you are the creditor. He won’t show his temper to you, as he would to me. You are a stranger, you see, and I’m only his wife.”
There was an accent of bitterness in the speaker’s voice, and she leant her head on her hands, in an attitude of profound dejection. Cornelia had never before been the witness of so abandoned a mood, but her ideas of loyalty were too much outraged to permit of sympathy. She held her head erect, and her voice sounded cold and distant.
“I’d just as soon not hear any more about Mr Moffatt, if you don’t mind. He’s been very kind to me, and it’s not my business how he behaves. I guess a good many men get crusty when the bills come in, and you’re a pretty expensive wife. I should think you’d get tired of prowling about those stores!”