me."

"How much?"

"Well, it comes to rather over thirty shillings a week."

"And can't a single woman live on thirty shillings a _wik_? Bless us! I
don't spend thirty shillings a wik myself."

Helen raised her chin. "A single woman can live on thirty shillings a
week," she said. "But what about her frocks?"

"Well, what about her frocks?" he repeated.

"Well," she said, "I like frocks. It just happens that I can't do
without frocks. It's just frocks that I work for; I spend nearly all I
earn on them." And her eyes, descending, seemed to say: "Look at the
present example."

"Seventy pounds a year on ye clothes! Ye're not serious, lass?"

She looked at him coldly. "I am serious," she said.

Experienced as he was, he had never come across a fact so incredible as
this fact. And the compulsion of believing it occupied his forces to
such an extent that he had no force left to be wise. He did not observe
the icy, darting challenge in her eye, and he ignored the danger in her
voice.

"All as I can say is you ought to be ashamed o' yourself, lass!" he