"Because what?" he asked a little impatiently. "Come, dear, out with it; the trouble will not seem half so great or insurmountable when you share it with me. Because—"
"Because I have no money, Archie, now, except just a very, very little; because that has gone like everything else."
"Do you mean your fortune?" he asked.
"Yes, dear, the whole of it," she answered, determined he should know the worst at last.
"My God!" said Mortomley, and the expression sounded strange, coming from the lips of a man who rarely gave vent to any vehemence of feeling. "What a fool I have been! what a wicked, short-sighted, senseless fool! why don't you speak hardly to me, Dolly—I who have ruined you and Lenore?"
She stooped down and kissed him.
"Archie, I don't care a straw about the money; I did at first, and I was afraid, but I am not afraid now; if only you will be content and brave, and ready to believe small beginnings sometimes make great endings."
But he made no reply. He only rose, and walking to the door flung it open, and stood looking out over the pleasant landscape.
Dolly feigned not to notice him. She went to her work-table and began turning over her tapes and cottons with restless fingers, waiting, waiting for her husband to speak.