“Wait! There’s something else, though. What about the dilapidations?”
“Dilapidations?”
“According to the agreement with the Government the landlord has to make good the damage to the houses and the tenant the injury to the land.”
It is true—she had forgotten all about it.
“Twenty-five thousand men here for four years—it will take something to put the land into cultivation.”
In a halting voice she asks Corlett what he thinks it will cost, and he mentions a monstrous figure.
“Three years’ rent of the farm—that’s the best I can make it.”
Mona gasps and her face becomes white.
“But that would leave me without a shilling,” she says.
“Tut, woman! With the big rent you’ve had from the Government you must have a nice little nest-egg somewhere.”