"I should hope so. How much is your army pay, if you don't mind my asking?"
"As first lieutenant I get a little over two thousand."
"Two thousand a week? Why, that's not bad at all. Why did you frighten me?"
He laughed aloud, and she corrected herself.
"Oh, two thousand a month. That's about twenty-five thousand a year. It isn't much, is it? But we could skimp and scrape, and we'd have each other."
She had given him his death-blow unwittingly.
He smiled dismally, and groaned:
"Two thousand a year with forage."
She stared at him in unbelief. "Two thousand a year with forage! We couldn't eat the forage, could we? They give you a pittance like that for being an officer and a gentleman and a hero?"
"The hero business is the worst paid of all. Look at the firemen."