"He is usually condemned to cloth boots for gouty feet," murmured Leah, patting the back of her head. "So you've pulled the wool over his eyes again?" "I wish you wouldn't use slang," protested Jim, virtuously. "I can't pretend to vie with Mrs. Penworthy's purity of speech, my dear man. How much have you got out of the Duke?" "Well, he hasn't given me money----" "Oh!" "But he's promised---- "Ah!" "I wish you'd let me speak," cried Kaimes, testily, "My father has promised to pay all the debts----" "Good heavens! Is he aware of the amount?" "Wait, I've not finished. He'll pay the debts, and reduce our income to a thousand a year till he recoups himself." "Really! I thought you had seen your father, and not a money-lender. Have you accepted this most generous offer?" "Yes, I have," said Jim, sulkily, and kicking a mat out of the way. "I see. It's to be Bayswater after all, James." "If you talk like that, I'll go down to dinner without you." "By all means. You've taken away my appetite." She laughed in a way calculated to still further infuriate Jim, who paced the room in a towering passion. Nevertheless, she was seriously angry. Had the Duke refused all help, it would have been more decent; but this bargain, which was all on one side, annoyed her beyond measure. What did the Duke mean by taking _their_ money? "It seems to me we've got to pay our own debts, then," she said, while Jim seethed like a whirlpool. "An' why shouldn't we? It's only fair." Leah stared, and began to think that Jim was too good for this world. "I hope you are not going to die," she said, anxiously. "Not in your way," cried Kaimes, misunderstanding her, "we aren't going to have any buryin' alive or substituted corpses, an' I'm goin' to hang on as a respectable member of society." "I'll come and hear you preach, Jim." "I'm preachin' now," raged her husband, "an' don't you make any mistake, Leah. I've told the Duke everythin'." "How injudicious! He might have had a fit." "He didn't even blame me," said Jim, breaking down, "an' there were tears in his eyes." Leah laughed amazingly long and loud, considering the tightness of her corset. "I wish I had been present. Did you cry too, Jim?" "I jolly well nearly did," said Kaimes, truthfully, if ungrammatically, "though it's no good explainin' to an icicle like you. But the pater's goin' to pay the debts, free our income, an' let the Curzon Street house." "Better and better. Then we _do_ go to Bayswater?" "He'll allow us one thousand a year till the debts are wiped off," went on Kaimes hurriedly, and wishing to get the explanation over, "an' we can go abroad for a couple of years." "You can. I shan't!" "As my wife, you must."