if White was to be
trusted, there was three figures of money still owing to him by compound
interest.

He had it out with William the next time he got him alone; but the
horseman declared himself as a good bit surprised that a little thing like
cash should fret such a happy and prosperous creature as Jonas Bird.

"Good powers!" he said, "haven't you found out that Milly was worth all
the money in the Bank of England? And then to grouse because you bain't
out of debt for her! Hell!" said William White, "you needn't think I
wouldn't be off the bargain to-morrow and gladly pay you all the money
twice over for Milly back again!"

Because, you see, his Daisy, though a nice girl up to a point, was very
human in some things and had failed, both as a wife and a mother, owing to
her fatal fondness for liquid refreshment. 'Twas a family weakness which
had been kept out of William's knowledge while he was courting; but
marriage and the cares of childer and so on, had woke a thirst in Daisy
that made her difficult. So William weren't in a mood to lighten up for
Jonas, and he said that figures can't lie and the loan must run its
appointed course if it took ten years to do so. He'd got the whip-hand, no
doubt, because it weren't a subject for any other ear, though Jonas, in
his despair, did once think of going to parson with it. But the thought of
laying bare the past and seeing parson's scorn was more than he could
face, and he hid it up.

At last, however, he felt the tax past bearing, for it was making an old
man of him; and then he braced himself and called on his Maker to see him
through and done the wisest thing that ever he had done. In a word, he
told Milly. He told her when they'd gone to bed one Christmas night and
unbosomed his troubled mind. He'd paid William another fifty only the week
night before and, as he presently confessed to Milly, 'twas the last straw
that broke his back and sent him to throw himself on her mercy.

He bade her list, then told the tale from the beginning, told it honest
without straining truth in any particular. And Milly listened and said not
a word till he was done.

"So there it is," finished Jonas--"a choice of evils for me 'twixt
stripping up the past afore your eyes and letting William bleed me to my
dying day seemingly. And knowing you, I reckoned the wisest thing was to
come to you with the naked tale and hide naught. William says figures
can't lie, and he may or may not be right, b