‘Dear! dear! dear! This sort of reckless expenditure makes me feel very sad. It is a habit that will grow upon you, Hilda, and you must check it at once. And for my child’s birthday, too; I should never have approved of your offering as I seemed to do had I known it was not paid for.’ ‘Well, sir, it was not my fault. I would have sent the money at once if I had had it to send. And, I assure you, you need not alarm yourself about my getting into debt; my mother and I contrived to live on our little income without owing a penny to any one. I am not a child, you must remember, first learning the use of money. I was my mother’s housekeeper for years, and paid for everything we had. No one knows better than I do how to economise and make money go to its farthest extent.’ ‘I am very glad to hear it, my dear, for, unless you marry well, you will have to live a very frugal life,’ he said, and he was actually returning to the study of his newspaper without another word. I stood by him for a few minutes in silence, and then I began again: ‘But I _must_ have some money now, if you please, Mr. Lovett. I cannot put off paying Mrs. Carolus any longer.’ ‘Well, I suppose you must; but I do hope this is the last time I shall ever hear of your having run into debt, Hilda. It is a terrible habit for a young woman to get into. How much do you owe Mrs. Carolus?’ ‘Twenty-five francs for the earrings, but I want a lot of things for my own use, Mr. Lovett, which I really cannot go any longer without.’ ‘_Twenty-five francs!_’ he repeated, as if those words were the only ones he had heard, ‘that is a ruinous sum, surely, to expend on a birthday present!’ ‘Hardly so, for an ornament. I thought them wonderfully cheap. However, cheap or dear, they have to be paid for.’ ‘Twenty-five francs!’ he ejaculated, for the second time. ‘Why, it would keep a poor family for a week, and to think it should be wasted on a mere piece of vanity!’ ‘It is better than spending it on champagne or losing it at cards,’ I answered wickedly. Mr. Lovett flushed up to his handsome brow with anger. I could see the rosy colour mantling there, above the top of the _Siècle_, and I thought for a moment he was about to rebuke me for my impudence. But policy got the better of his annoyance, I suppose, for he elected to say nothing, at all events on that subject. ‘You shall have the money this afternoon,’ he observed coldly, after a pause; ‘I have no change in my pocket at this moment.’ ‘I shall have been here three months next week,’ I said, ‘so I suppose you will call that the quarter, will you not, Mr. Lovett?’ But to this question he vouchsafed no reply. ‘You said something, you know,’ I continued, ‘about making it eighty pounds a year instead of fifty; but if that would be inconvenient to you just at present, I am quite willing to take what was first arranged between us—that is twelve pounds ten—at all events to go on with. You could make it up to me next quarter if you thought fit.’