“No, I daresay not,” she answered with dreary inconsequence. “But it doesn’t matter!”
“What nonsense! Of course it matters. You must let me lend you some.”
She shuddered. “Oh, I couldn’t borrow of you.”
“Why not? You don’t know what you are saying, poor thing!”
At that word she began to cry.
“Look here——” His words were rough, but his voice was gentle. “For Heaven’s sake, don’t go and expose yourself—expose us”—for she had made a gesture expressive of entire disregard of all malign inferences with regard to herself—“to the whole household! It is bad enough already!”
He took her hand, and she ceased to weep, and looked up into the face of her supreme arbiter with a dull submission.
“You must take these three notes that I am going to give you,” he said authoritatively, “and go quietly up to your room and ring for the servant and ask for your bill and pay it—I can’t do all this for you, or I would—but I will order the trap to take you to the station in time for the 12:45!”
“Drive to the station with me,” she murmured.
“No, I must not do that, but I will tell you what I will do. As soon as you have made all your arrangements, we will take a little walk in the Park, shall we?”