"All lost," he repeated. "It was in a mine; the mine is flooded, and has been an utter failure; the shares are not worth a single halfpenny."
"Poor mother! Poor, poor mother!"
"Has she much besides?"
"Not much; there is a little, a very little; but, you see, there's Leila now, and little Carl."
"They live with you?"
"Yes; and little Carl will have to be educated; there is nothing for him whatever, only what mother can do. But how selfish I am!" she went on. "I have been thinking of ourselves, and never thought of you. Won't it make a great difference to you?"
"Yes; of course I shall have to leave the army."
"I didn't know you were a soldier."
"I have just got my captaincy."
"What will you do?"