on his household effects.

To Mr Goring the disaster came at once as a shock and a confirmation of
old fears. He found himself in the position of being able to say "I
told you so"; but there was little pleasure in the advantage when the
chief sufferer was his dearest child, and the transgressor so humble and
penitent as his son-in-law. His chief grief was that, owing to
decreasing income from his own investments, and the expenses of two big
sons at Oxford, he could not increase the allowance of two hundred a
year which he had regularly contributed towards the Gloucester _menage_.
Jean expected him to offer to buy her furniture at a valuation, but, to
her intense disappointment, he made no such proposition.

"Get rid of the things as best you can--they'll sell well, or ought to,
considering the price Robert paid. They wouldn't fit into a small
house, and you'll want a different style of thing altogether--plain,
simple furniture, that can be kept in order by less experienced maids.
All these curios and odds and ends are very well in their way, but they
mean work--work! There'll be no time for dusting old china and
polishing brasses. Get rid of them all, and I'll see what I can do
towards helping you to a fresh start. We have been looking through the
rooms at home, and there are a lot of odds and ends which we can share.
You'll have to lie low for a time, and be satisfied with usefuls; but
I'll see that you are comfortable, my dear. I'll see to that."

"Thank you, sir, thank you indeed," cried Robert warmly. "It's most
good and kind of you. You have always been most generous. You are
quite right about this furniture, it would be unsuitable under the new
conditions. It's all one to me--I don't notice these things, and Jean
has been heroic about it all--she doesn't mind either. She's quite
prepared for the change. Aren't you, dear?"

Jean assented with a small, strained smile, and Robert continued to
discuss the subject with philosophic calm. Jean had declared with her
own lips that worldly goods were of no importance in her eyes when
compared to the treasure of their love, and in simple faith he had taken
her at her word. It was beyond his powers of comprehension to realise
that the last few minutes, with their calm condemnation of her Lares and
Penates, had been one of acute agony to his wife's soul--the worst
moment she had known, since the springing of the bad news. When she was
silent and distrait for