"
And he threw them across to her.
When she had first come home to be mistress of the Hall the bills had
overwhelmed her; they had been so many and the money to meet them had
been so inadequate; but she had soon learnt how to "finance" them, and
come to know which account must be paid at once, and which might be
allowed to stand over.
She took them now and glanced at them, and the old man watched her
covertly, with a curious expression on his face.
"I'm sure I don't know how you will pay them," he said, as if she alone
were responsible.
"I can't pay all of them at once," she replied, cheerfully. "But I can
some, and the rest must wait. I can send four--perhaps five--of the
steers to the monthly market, and then there are the sheep--Oh, father,
I did not tell; you about the gentleman I saw fishing in the dale--"
She stopped, for she saw that he was not listening. He had opened a
local paper and was reading it intently, and presently he looked up
with an eager flush on his face and a sudden lightening of the dull
eyes.
"Have you seen this--this house--they call it a palace--which that man
has built on the lake side?" he asked, his thin voice quavering with
resentment.
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