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call me ‘letter-box,’ ” Lina would feel constrained to point out, in the way that one is forced to mention something derogatory about one’s self before another person’s praise.
    “ ‘Letter-box!’ ” Johnnie would echo indignantly. “You’ve got the sweetest, most adorable, wickedest little mouth any woman ever had – and what’s more, I’m going to kiss it this instant.”
    “Johnnie, you
can’t.
Not here!”
    “Can’t I?” Johnnie would retort with his most mischievous smile; and it was made plain that he could.
    Then Lina would vow passionately to herself that she would be an adequate wife, if only Johnnie would go on loving her like this.
    And almost before she knew it had happened, she found that she was an adequate wife after all. It just happened, like that. Johnnie congratulated his pupil, and Lina found herself so happy that it seemed almost sinful; as if one were snatching all the happiness there was in the world, and leaving none over for anyone else.
    After that the honeymoon wildly surpassed even the most entrancing versions of itself that Lina had lived through, when her fancies took that turn, for the last dozen years.
    They got back to England in the last week of October.
CHAPTER III
    Johnnie leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, rubbed its silk-covered ankle, and laughed as if this was all the greatest joke in the world. “Not a cent!” he repeated. “I thought you’d better know,” he added.
    “Well, I should hope so,” Lina said tartly. And after a pause, as calmly as she could: “What do you intend to do about it?” Already she saw them begging their bread, from house to house.
    “Oh, I don’t know. I expect something will turn up. It always does.”
    Lina was too upset even to retort with Mr. Micawber.
    Johnnie had just broken the news to her that, after six weeks in their new home, he had no money left: not a penny, for them to live on.
    “But why did you take this house? It’s far bigger than we need. What on earth possessed you?” In her voice dismay was sharpening rapidly into irritation.
    “I told you, darling,” Johnnie said, in hurt tones. “You’ll have plenty of money one day. It seemed silly to wait to be comfortable; I thought we might just as well be comfortable from the beginning.”
    “One doesn’t necessarily have to have eight bedrooms, for comfort.”
    “I like plenty of rooms,” Johnnie retorted nonchalantly.
    Lina stared at him, her chin on her hand.
    Such complete irresponsibility dumbfounded her. She had always known that Johnnie was irresponsible, but she had never imagined that even he would go to the length of taking a house twice as large as they needed, with no funds of his own at all with which to keep it up. General McLaidlaw was making his daughter an allowance of five hundred a year since her marriage, but that was supposed to be for her own personal use; in any case, more than double that sum was needed to keep up Dellfield.
    And Johnnie had taken a house with eight bedrooms just because he liked plenty of room. How like Johnnie. It just would not have occurred to him to wait for plenty of rooms until he could afford to pay for them.
    “How much money did you have?” Lina asked. She and Johnnie had never discussed money before. She had taken it for granted that Johnnie, though hard up like all the Aysgarths, must have enough for them to live on, though she had expected to have to supplement her housekeeping money out of her father’s allowance. Now it seemed that he simply had no income at all.
    “Oh,” Johnnie smiled, “I borrowed a thousand to marry you on, darling.”
    “A thousand! Oh, well, I suppose that isn’t too bad.” Lina tried to be optimistic, though it was bad enough that Johnnie should have borrowed at all. “Considering we’ve furnished out of it and had those alterations done.”
    “Those?” Johnnie repeated in surprise. “Those aren’t paid for. Nor the furniture.”
    “Then