The Good Comrade | Page 6

you accuse me--you, my own daughter--this is much, indeed."
He paced the hearthrug with outraged dignity, but Julia only drew one of the horse-hair chairs to the table. "You would do better to tell me," she said; "I might be able to help you--Johnny, won't you sit down?"
Johnny took the cane deck-chair, sitting down nervously and so near the edge that the old chair creaked ominously. Captain Polkington paced the rug once or twice more, then he sat down opposite, giving up all pretence of dignity.
"It is money, of course," Julia went on; "I suppose you lost at the races yesterday--how much?"
The Captain did not answer, he seemed overwhelmed by his troubles. "How much?" Julia repeated, turning to Mr. Gillat.
"It was rather much," that gentleman answered apologetically.
Julia looked puzzled. "How could he have much to lose?" she asked. "You couldn't, you know," bending her brows as she looked at her father--"unless you borrowed--did you borrow?"
"Yes, yes," he said, rather eagerly; "I borrowed--that was it; of course I was going to pay back--I am going to pay back."
"From whom did you borrow?" Another pause, and the question again, then the Captain explained confusedly: "The cheque--it came a day early--I merely meant to make use of it for the day--"
"The cheque!" Julia repeated, with dawning comprehension. "The cheque from Slade & Slade that mother was speaking of this morning. Our cheque, the money we have to live on for the next three months?"
"My cheque," her father said, with one last effort at dignity; "made out to me--my income that I have a perfect right to spend as I like; I used my own money for my own purposes."
He forgot that a moment back he had excused the act as a borrowing; Julia did not remind him, she was too much concerned with the facts to trouble about mere turns of speech. They, like words and motives, had not heretofore entered much into her considerations; consequences were what was really important to her--how the bad might be averted, how the good drawn that way, and all used to the best advantage. This point of view, though it leaves a great deal to be desired, has one advantage--those who take it waste no time in lamentation or reproof. For that reason they are perhaps some of the least unpleasant people to confess to.
Julia wasted no words now; she sat for a brief minute, stunned by the magnitude of the calamity which had deprived them of the largest part of their income for the next three months; then she began to look round in her mind to see what might be done. Captain Polkington offered a few not very coherent explanations and excuses, to which she did not listen, and then relapsed into silence. Johnny sat opposite, rubbing his hands in nervous sympathy, and looking from father to daughter; he took the silence of the one to be as hopeless as that of the other.
"We thought," he ventured at last, tugging at the parcel now firmly wedged in his pocket. "We hoped, that is, we thought perhaps we might raise a trifle, it wouldn't be much help--"
But neither of the others were listening to him, and Captain Polkington interrupted with his own remedy, "We shall have to manage on credit," he said; "we can get credit for this three months."
"We can't," Julia assured him; "the greater part of that money was to have paid outstanding bills; we can't live on credit, because we haven't got any to live on."
"That's nonsense," her father said; "it can be done with care and economy, and retrenchments."
Julia did not answer, so Johnny took up the words. "Yes, yes," he said, "one can always retrench; it is really marvellous how little one can do with, in fact one is better for it; I feel a different man for having to retrench. Your mother's a wonderful woman"--he stopped, then added doubtfully as he thought of the lost apple tart--"I suppose, though, she would want to make a good appearance just now, with the engagement, Mr. Frazer in and out. It is very unfortunate, very."
By this time he had untied his parcel, and flattening the paper on his knees began to put the contents on the table. There were some field-glasses, a breast pin, and a few other such things; when he had put them all out he felt in his waistcoat-pocket for his watch.
"They would fetch a trifle," he said, regarding the row a little proudly.
"Those?" Julia asked, puzzled.
"Yes," Mr. Gillat said; "not a great deal, of course, but it would be a help--it might pay the butcher's bill. It's a great thing to have the butcher's bill paid; I've heard my landlady say so; it gives a standing with the other tradespeople, and that's what you want--she often says so."
"You mean