Finally, when the Americans came in, he was
allowed to resign. So we came across to the States. We went here and
there, spending as we went. We cut a pretty wide swath too, most of
the time. There were several disastrous speculations. Presently the
money was all gone. Then we came up here, where we can live on next to
nothing. We shall have to stay here another eighteen months. Looking
back, the way we spent money seems sheer lunacy. The fool and his
money--you know. And it wasn't our money. That hurts me now. I've
begun to realize what money means to me, to you, to every one. That's
why when Jim calmly told me that he had borrowed a hundred dollars
from you I felt that was a little more than I could stand. That's
piling it on. I wondered why you gave it to him--if you let him have
it in a spirit of contemptuous charity. I might have known it wasn't
that. But don't lend him any more. He really doesn't need it.
Borrowing with Jim is just like asking for a smoke. He's queer. If he
made a bet with you and lost he'd pay up promptly, if he had to pawn
his clothes and mine too.
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