Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/299

 "Yes I do. Will you bet?"

She nodded.

"How much?"

"Five pounds."

"Right."

"What was it, then?" asked Lola.

"That I left Aunt Caroline to liquidate my I.O.U. to Payne."

She opened her bag and proceeded to count out five one-pound treasury notes.

"Rain-Girl, don't."

She looked at him keenly, startled at his tone, and saw the hard, set expression in his eyes.

"But it was a bet."

"Please don't," he said earnestly; "at least, not yet. I know it's stupid; but"

She looked at him with smiling eyes.

"You see," he went on hurriedly, "Drew sent me round fifty pounds this afternoon."

"Very well, then, to-morrow I shall go round to Aunt Caroline and apologise for you."

He looked at her quickly, there was something oddly intimate in the use of the words "Aunt Caroline." She seemed to be drifting into her new relationship with astonishing ease. He envied her this quality. For himself, he felt that if he were to live for centuries, he could never live down the humiliation of marrying a woman with money.

"Shall we go on the river to-morrow?" he asked irrelevantly.

"Oh yes, let's," she cried, clapping her hands.