haps listening--but giving no sign of intelligence,
and stared at the floor in sudden immobility, as if the horror of the
situation, the overwhelming sense of her own wickedness and of her
husband's great danger, had stunned her brain, her heart, her will--had
left her no faculty but that of breathing and of keeping on her feet.
Almayer swore to himself with much mental profanity that he had never
seen a more useless, a more stupid being.

"D'ye hear me?" he said, raising his voice. "Do try to understand. Have
you any money? Money. Dollars. Guilders. Money! What's the matter with
you?"

Without raising her eyes she said, in a voice that sounded weak and
undecided as if she had been making a desperate effort of memory--

"The house has been sold. Mr. Hudig was angry."

Almayer gripped the edge of the table with all his strength. He resisted
manfully an almost uncontrollable impulse to fly at her and box her
ears.

"It was sold for money, I suppose," he said with studied and incisive
calmness. "Have you got it? Who has got it?"

She looked up at him, raising her swollen eyelids with a great effort,
in a sorrowful expression of her drooping mouth, of her whole besmudged
and tear-stained face. She whispered resignedly--

"Leonard had some. He wanted to get married. And uncle Antonio; he sat
at the door and would not go away. And Aghostina--she is so poor . . .
and so many, many children--little children. And Luiz the engineer. He
never said a word against my husband. Also our cousin Maria. She came
and shouted, and my head was so bad, and my heart was worse. Then cousin
Salvator and old Daniel da Souza, who . . ."

Almayer had listened to her speechless with rage. He thought: I must
give money now to that idiot. Must! Must get her out of the way now
before Lingard is back. He made two attempts to speak before he managed
to burst out--

"I don't want to know their blasted names! Tell me, did all those
infernal people leave you anything? To you! That's what I want to know!"

"I have two hundred and fifteen dollars," said Joanna, in a frightened
tone.

Almayer breathed freely. He spoke with great friendliness--

"That will do. It isn't much, but it will do. Now when the man comes I
will be out of the way. You speak to him. Give him some money; only
a little, mind! And promise more. Then when you get there you will be
guided by your husband, of course. And don't forget to tell him that
Captain Lingard is at the m