ave one nice room!"

Apparently this extravagance also could be traced to my influence! It
was useless to waste any more words. I went straight to the point.

"How much?"

"Oh!" she started and shivered. "I'm ashamed to say. And now--we are
going away, and the bills have to be paid. I'm a new customer, and they
keep sending them in. And the house books! They have run on. Jacky
gave me some money. I _meant_ to pay them, honestly I did, Evelyn, but
somehow the money frittered away till there wasn't enough left. I paid
some--but there are others left. Jacky would hate it, if we left the
parish in debt."

"How much?" I repeated, and she flushed to the roots of her hair.

"Over--a hundred! Nearer--_two_, I'm afraid, Evelyn!"

It was more than I had expected. I had to make fresh calculations, and
revise several plans. Subconsciously, I had known that the trouble was
monetary, and had made a special study of my pass book before leaving
the flat.

"I can let you have a hundred at once, and settle the rest of the bills
for you next month, if that will do."

She looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Do you think I deserve it?"

"I'm not sure that you do, but Mr Merrivale _does_! He shan't have any
new worry just now, if I can prevent it. You are sure you have told me
everything, Delphine? That is _all_!"

"I'll show you the bills. I knew you would help. You were the only
person I could bear to ask; but you did not wait to be asked. I do love
you, Evelyn, and I shall never forget! You understand, don't you, that
it is only a loan? I shall pay you back!"

"I know you will, when you can. It's a comfort that you need not hurry.
I can wait for years."

"You will have to, I'm afraid. Three years! I hadn't a penny of my own
when I married, but an old aunt left us all two hundred and fifty
pounds, to be paid when we were twenty-five. That's my fortune! Jacky
teases me about it, for I was always planning what I will do when it
comes. I had decided to buy a tiny two-seater, and learn to drive. I
told him that it would be useful in the parish, but really I was
thinking of the fun for myself. Are you shocked?"

"Not a bit!"

"Well, it would be a waste of energy if you were, for I shall never have
it now. The money will go to repay you--and to pay interest on the
loan. I shall pay five per cent."

"I only get four."

"I insist upon five! I should like to feel that you had made a good
in