“They’ve cut their connection with me,” said Erb.
“Comes to the same thing,” said his sister, equably.
“Last time you was here, Mr. Barnes,” said cook, over her shoulder from the fire, “you came as a friend of the family. Funny world isn’t it? Upstairs one day, downstairs the next.”
“You must be short of money, Erb,” whispered his sister, in an undertone. “I’ve got quite a tidy bit put away in the savings bank. If ten or twenty pounds—”
“Upon my word,” cried Erb, “it’s worth while having a touch of misfortune now and again, if it’s only just to find how much kindness there is about. But I shall find my feet somehow, Alice. Don’t you worry about me.”
“Can’t help doing so.”
“You might do what you can for Louisa, though. If it hadn’t been for—for a friend of mine, I don’t know where she’d have been.”
“We’ve never quite got on together in the past,” said Alice regretfully. “The difference in our heights seem to have led to other differences. But I’ll see that it all dries straight. She’ll pull through, of course.”
“I think she’ll just pull through,” said Erb, thoughtfully, “and that’s about all. Doctor says that if there was unlimited money about she’d be herself in a few months. But there you are, you see! Just when it’s wanted particularly, it goes and hides.”
Mr. Danks knocked and came in with a reverential air that differed from the one with which he had greeted Erb in the area. Lady Frances’ compliments, and she would be pleased to see Mr. Barnes in the drawing-room now.