O'Rane stopped me suddenly.
"By next January I can let you have three hundred on account," he said.
"You'd better pay it back direct," I suggested. "Two hundred to my uncle, who'll be mortally offended at receiving it——"
"I can't help that," he interrupted obstinately.
"And the next time you go to Crowley Court——"
"I'm not going there again, George."
"My dear Raney, in common decency you must! When a girl sells the pearls her father gave her when she came out——"
"George!"
"And things from her dead brother, and a twopenny wrist-watch——"
"George, please stop!" He sat with his fists pressed to his temples. "I'd have sworn it was Jim. I wrote to him a fortnight ago.... And as he didn't deny it...."