"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 investment." She waved her hand with a lordly air which made me laugh. And she laughed, too, with obvious enjoyment. "Oh, my dear, what a relief! I shall sleep happily to-night for the first time for weeks. I can never tell you how wretched I've felt; so worried, and guilty, and trapped! Honestly it will be a lesson for life. You have helped me for the moment, but my worst punishment is to come. When he is well again, quite strong and fit, I must tell Jacky!" Her face clouded. "He won't say much, but his face! It will be an awful ordeal, but I suppose it will be good for me!" I thought--but did not say--that it would be good for him too. The shock might teach him to be more understanding in his treatment of his girl wife. Soon after that I suggested paying a flying call on the General, and Delphine assented eagerly, no doubt feeling, as I did myself, that it would be a relief to be spared a further _tete-a-tete_. The dear old man was delighted to see me, and was eager to hear when Charmion and I were coming back to "Pastimes". Something in his manner, in the way his old eyes searched my face, made me suspect that he knows. I travelled to town alone, and arrived at the flat feeling tired and dispirited. Bridget wanted to know if I had seen anything of her man. She also seemed a trifle out of temper. "Some people," she said darkly, "don't know when they are well off!" CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. A BRUTE--AND A REVELATION.