'It seems to me that is rather my affair,' said the colonel coolly.
'Yes, papa,' said Esther, with a certain eagerness, 'I like it to be your affair—only tell me what I ought to do.'
'Tell you what you ought to do about what?'
'How to pay as we go, papa,' she answered in a lower tone.
'It is very simple,' the colonel said, with some impatience. 'Let your expenses be regulated by your means. In other words, do not get anything you have not the money for.'
'I should like to follow that rule, papa; but'—
'Then follow it,' said the colonel, going back to his book, as if the subject were dismissed.
'But, papa, there are some things one must have.'
'Very well. Get those things. That is precisely what I mean.'
'Papa, flour is one of them.'