“I do not think you need fret about that, Tom,” she said, after turning these things over in her mind for a minute or two.

“How, not fret about them? But I suppose you know nothing of the state of the business. Has Rubb spoken to you?”

“He did say some word as we came along in the cab.”

“What did he say?”

“He said—”

“Well, tell me what he said. He said, that if I died—what then? You must not be afraid of speaking of it openly. Why, Margaret, they have all told me that it must be in a month or two. What did Rubb say?”

“He said that there would be very little coming out of the business—that is, for Sarah and the children—if anything were to happen to you.”

“I don’t suppose they’d get anything. How it has been managed I don’t know. I have worked like a galley slave at it, but I haven’t kept the books, and I don’t know how things have gone so badly. They have gone badly,—very badly.”

“Has it been Mr Rubb’s fault?”

“I won’t say that; and, indeed, if it has been any man’s fault it has been the old man’s. I don’t want to say a word against the one that you know. Oh, Margaret!”

“Don’t fret yourself now, Tom.”

“If you had seven children, would not you fret yourself? And I hardly know how to speak to you about it. I know that we have already had ever so much of your money, over two thousand pounds; and I fear you will never see it again.”

“Never mind, Tom; it is yours, with all my heart. Only, Tom, as it is so badly wanted, I would rather it was yours than Mr Rubb’s. Could I not do something that would make that share of the building yours?”

He shifted himself uneasily in his bed, and made her understand that she had distressed him.

“But perhaps it will be better to say nothing more about that,” said she.

“It will be better that you should understand it all. The property belongs nominally to us, but it is mortgaged to the full of its value. Rubb can explain it all, if he will. Your money went to buy it, but other creditors would not be satisfied without security. Ah, dear! it is so dreadful to have to speak of all this in this way.”

“Then don’t speak of it, Tom.”

“But what am I to do?”

“Are there no proceeds from the business?”

“Yes, for those who work in it; and I think there will be something coming out of it for Sarah,—something, but it will be very small. And if so, she must depend for it solely on Mr Rubb.”

“On the young one?”

“Yes; on the one that you know.”