‘You mean to do all that?’ she said at last. ‘To sell everything and go to Florence? And to live there?’
‘Certainly,’ he replied tranquilly; ‘it will be so cheap.’
‘Cheap?’ she exclaimed. ‘Yes--and dull! Besides, why this sudden fuss about owing Darlington money? It’s been owing for months, and you didn’t say anything.’
‘I expected to be able to put the account straight out of the money coming from the book and the play,’ he replied. ‘As they are not exactly gold-mines, I must do what I can. I can’t remain in Darlington’s debt in that way--it wouldn’t be fair to him.’
‘I don’t see that you need upset everything just for that,’ she said. ‘He has not asked you to put the account straight, has he?’
‘Of course not!’ exclaimed Lucian. ‘He never would; he’s much too good a fellow to do that sort of thing. But that’s just why I must get out of his debt--it’s taking a mean advantage of his kindness. I’m quite certain nobody else would have been so very generous.’
Haidee glanced at her husband out of the corners of her eyes: the glance was something like that with which Sprats had regarded him in the afternoon. He had not caught Sprats’s glance, and he did not catch his wife’s.
‘By the bye, Haidee,’ he said, after a short silence, ‘I called at Darlington’s to-day to find out just how we stand there, and the manager gave me the exact figures. You’ve rather gone it, you know, during the past half-year. You’ve gone through seven thousand pounds.’
‘But I paid for the diamonds out of that, you know,’ she said. ‘They cost over six thousand.’
‘Good heavens!--did they?’ said Lucian. ‘I thought it was an affair of fifty pounds or so.’
‘How ridiculous!’ she exclaimed. ‘Diamonds--like these--for fifty pounds! You are the simplest child I ever knew.’
Lucian was endeavouring to recall the episode of the buying of the diamonds. He remembered at last that Haidee had told him that she had the opportunity of buying some diamonds for a much less sum than they were worth. He had thought it some small transaction, and had bidden her to consult somebody who knew something about that sort of thing.
‘I remember now,’ he said. ‘I told you to ask advice of some one who knew something about diamonds.’
‘And so I did,’ she answered. ‘I asked Darlington’s advice--he’s an authority--and he said I should be foolish to miss the chance. And then I said I didn’t know whether I dare draw a cheque for such an amount, and he laughed and said of course I might, and that he would arrange it with you.’