Part 12 (2/2)

”Nothing. To be sure there is my gold watch, but that would not fetch more than a few pounds; and my wedding-ring, which I would sooner die than part with.”

Netta glanced, as she spoke, at an unusually superb diamond ring, of Eastern manufacture, which adorned her own delicate hand. It was her father's last gift to her a few days before he died.

”What are you thinking of, darling?” inquired Mrs Tipps.

”Of many things,” replied Netta slowly. ”It is not easy to tell you exactly what--”

Here she was saved the necessity of further explanation by the entrance of Joseph Tipps, who, after kissing his mother and sister heartily, threw his hat and gloves into a corner, and, rubbing his hands together as he sat down, inquired if Edwin Gurwood had been there.

”No, we have neither seen nor heard of him,” said Netta.

”Then you shall have him to luncheon in half-an-hour, or so,” said Joseph, consulting his watch. ”I got leave of absence to-day, and intend to spend part of my holiday in introducing him to Captain Lee, who has promised to get him a situation in the head office. You've no idea what a fine hearty fellow he is,” continued Tipps enthusiastically, ”so full of humour and good sense. But what have you been discussing?

Not accounts, surely! Why, mother, what's the use of boring your brains with such things? Let me have 'em, I'll go over them for you. What d'you want done? The additions checked, eh?”

On learning that it was not the accounts so much as the discrepancy between the estimate and the actual expenditure that puzzled his mother, Tipps seized her book, and, turning over the leaves, said, ”Here, let me see, I'll soon find it out--ah, well, rent yes; taxes, h'm; wine to Mrs Natly, you put that, in your estimate, under the head of food, I suppose?”

”N-no, I think not.”

”Under physic, then?”

”No, not under that. I have no head for that.”

”What! no head for physic? If you'd said you had no stomach for it I could have understood you; but--well--what _did_ you put it under; sundries, eh?”

”I'm afraid, Joseph, that I have not taken note of that in my extract-- your dear father used to call the thing he did with his cash-book at the end of the year an extract--I think I've omitted that.”

”Just so,” said Tipps, jotting down with a pencil on the back of a letter. ”I'll soon account to you for the discrepancy. Here are six bottles of wine to Mrs Natly, the railway porter's wife, at three-and-six--one pound one--not provided for in your estimate. Any more physic, I wonder? H'm, subscription for coals to the poor.

Half-a-guinea--no head for charities in your estimate, I suppose?”

”Of course,” pleaded Mrs Tipps, ”in making an estimate, I was thinking only of my own expenses, you know--not of charities and such-like things; but when poor people come, you know, what _is_ one to do?”

”We'll not discuss that just now, mother. Hallo! `ten guineas doctor's fee!' Of course you have not that in the estimate, seeing that you did not know Netta was going to be ill. What's this?--`five pounds for twenty wax dolls--naked--(to be dressed by ---)'”

”Really, Joseph, the book is too private to be read aloud,” said Mrs Tipps, s.n.a.t.c.hing it out of her son's hand. ”These dolls were for a bazaar in aid of the funds of a blind asylum, and I dressed them all myself last winter.”

”Well, well, mother,” said Tipps, laughing, ”I don't want to pry into such secrets; but here, you see, we have seventeen pounds odd of the discrepancy discovered already, and I've no doubt that the remainder could soon be fished up.”

”Yes,” sighed Mrs Tipps, sadly, ”I see it now. As the poet truly says,--`Evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart.' I have been a.s.sisting the poor at the expense of my trades-people.”

”Mother,” exclaimed Tipps, indignantly, ”you have been doing nothing of the sort. Don't imagine that I could for a moment insinuate such a thing. You have only made a little mistake in your calculations, and all that you have got to do is to _put down a larger sum for contingencies_ next time. What nonsense you talk about your trades-people! Every one of them shall be paid to the last farthing--”

Here Tipps was interrupted by the entrance of Edwin Gurwood, who at once began with much interest to inquire into the health of Mrs Tipps, and hoped that she had not suffered in any way from her recent accident.

Mrs Tipps replied she was thankful to say that she had not suffered in any way, beyond being a little shaken and dreadfully alarmed.

”But railways have suffered,” said Tipps, laughing, ”for mother is so strongly set against them now that she would not enter one for a thousand pounds.”

”They have suffered in worse ways than that,” said Gurwood, ”if all that I hear be true, for that accident has produced a number of serious compensation cases.”

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