'Yes. Very well. What then?'
'Our last barrel of flour is not paid for.'
'Not paid for! Why not?'
'Barker could not, papa.'
'Barker should not have got it, then. I allow no debts.'
'But, papa, we must have bread, you know. That is one of the things that one cannot do with out. What should she do?' Esther said gently.
'She could go to the baker's, I suppose, and get a loaf for the time.'
'But, papa, the bread costs twice as much that way; or one third more, if not twice as much. I do not know the exact proportion; but I know it is very greatly more expensive so.'
The colonel was well enough acquainted with details of the commissary department to know it also. He was for a moment silenced.
'And, papa, Buonaparte, too, must eat; and his oats and hay are not paid for.' It went sharp to Esther's heart to say the words, for she knew how keenly they would go to her father's heart; but she was standing in the breach, and must fight her fight. The colonel flew out in hot displeasure; sometimes, as we all know, the readiest disguise of pain.