380 The Real Charlotte. 



his brimming sense of collapse and crisis, he felt that even 

 this temporary delay of sympathy was an unkindness. 



'* That colt must be sold this week, so I couldn't afford 

 to knock his hoof to bits on the hard road." His manner 

 was so portentous that Charlotte looked up again, and per- 

 mitted herself to remark on what had been apparent to her 

 the moment she saw him. 



"Why, what's the matter with you, Roddy? Now I 

 come to see you, you look as if you'd been at your own 

 funeral." 



" I wish to God I had ! It would be the best thing 

 could happen me." 



He found pleasure in saying something to startle her, 

 and in seeing that her face became a shade hotter than the 

 stifling air and the stooping over her work had made it. 



" What makes you talk like that ? " she said, a little 

 strangely, as it seemed to him. 



He thought she was moved, and he immediately felt his 

 position to be more pathetic than he had beheved. It 

 would be much easier to explain the matter to Charlotte 

 than to Francie, he felt at once ; Charlotte understood 

 business matters, a formula which conveyed to his mind 

 much comfortable flexibility in money affairs. 



" Charlotte," he said, looking down at her with eyes that 

 self-pity and shaken self-control were moistening again, 

 " I'm in most terrible trouble. Will you help me ? " 



*'Wait till I hear what it is and I'll tell you that," 

 replied Charlotte, with the same peculiar, flushed look on 

 her face, and suggestion in her voice of strong and latent 

 feeling. He could not tell how it was, but he felt as if she 

 knew what he was going to say. 



" I'm four hundred pounds in debt to the estate, and 

 Dysart has found it out," he said, lowering his voice as if 

 afraid that the spiders and wood-lice might repeat his 

 secret. 



" Four hundred," thought Charlotte; " that's more than I 

 reckoned ; " but she said aloud, " My God ! Roddy, how 

 did that happen ? " 



" I declare to you I don't know how it happened. One 

 thing and another came against me, and I had to borrow 

 this money, and before I could pay it he found out." 



Lambert was a pitiable figure as he made his confession, 



