He talked ceaselessly.  There was a spot of red in the midst of each of his sallow cheeks, and his eyes gleamed with excitement.  On leaving the mill a sudden thirst had come upon him, and he had quenched it with a glass of spirits at the first public-house he passed.  Perhaps that had some part in his elation.

Emily almost immediately withdrew and went up to her bedroom.  Here she sat alone for more than an hour, in fear lest her mother should come to the door.  Then she heard the gate open, and, looking from the window, saw her father and his friend pass into the road and walk away together, the former still talking in an excited way.  A minute or two later came the knock which she dreaded.  She opened the door, and her mother entered.

‘Emily, did you ever know your father so strange?’ Mrs. Hood asked, in a tone of genuine alarm.  She had sunk upon a chair, and looked to the girl as if overcome with physical weakness.  ’What can it all mean?  When I asked him why he had told that story about the money, he only laughed—­said it was a joke, and he’d explain it all before long.  I can’t think where the money came from!  And now he’s gone to pay that man’s fare to London, and no doubt to lend him more money too.’

Emily made no reply.  She stood near the window, and looked out at the clouds which were breaking after a brief shower.

‘Wherever the money may have come from,’ pursued her mother, ’it’s cruel that it should go in this way.  We never wanted it worse than we do now.  It’s my belief he’s borrowed it himself; a nice thing to borrow for one’s own needs, and then throw it away on such a good-for-nothing as that.’

Emily turned and put a question quietly.

‘Are you in more than usual need of money?’

’Well, my dear, you know I always try to say as little about such things as I can, but now your father’s been and borrowed—­as of course he must have done—­there’s no choice but to tell you.  The house at Barnhill’s going to be empty at the end of the quarter, and our rent here’s going to be raised, and, all things coming together, we’ve had a good deal to make us anxious.  It’s just like your father—­wanting to make me believe that things are better than they really are; it always was his way, and what’s the good of it I never could see.  Of course he means it well, but he’d far better have been open about it, and have told me what he was going to do.’

Emily was shaken with agitation.

‘Mother!’ she exclaimed, ’why have you both insisted on keeping silence before me about your difficulties?  There was no kindness in it; you have done me the cruelest wrong.  Had I not money in plenty beyond what I needed?  What if the future be uncertain?  Has not the present its claims, and can your needs be separated from mine?  Because you have succeeded in keeping me apart from the troubles of your life, you—­you and father—­have thought you had done a praiseworthy