"I was--thinking merely."
"Then I wish you wouldn't think so suddenly next time."
"I beg your pardon."
"Nor be so very emphatic about it."
"No," said I, "er--no." Hereupon, deigning to receive her pen
back again, she recommenced her figuring, while I began to fill
my pipe.
"Two shillings for tea!"
"Excellent!" said I.
"I do wish," she sighed, raising her head to shake it
reproachfully at me, "that you would be a little more sensible."
"I'll try."
"Tea at twelve shillings a pound is a luxury!"
"Undoubtedly!"
"And to pay two shillings for a luxury when we are so poor--is
sinful!"
"Is it, Charmian?"
"Of course it is."
"Oh!" said I; "and yet, life without tea--more especially as you
brew it--would be very stale, flat, and unprofitable, and--"
"Bacon and eggs--one shilling and fourpence!" she went on,
consulting her accounts.
"Ah!" said I, not venturing on "good," this time.
"Butter--one shilling!"
"Hum!" said I cautiously, and with the air of turning this over
in my mind.
"Vegetables--tenpence!"
"To be sure," said I, nodding my head, "tenpence, certainly."
"And bread, Peter" (this in a voice of tragedy) "--eightpence."
"Excellent!" said I recklessly, whereat Charmian immediately
frowned at me.
"Oh, Peter!" said she, with a sigh of resignation, "you possess
absolutely no idea of proportion. Here we pay four shillings for
meat, and only eightpence for bread; had we spent less on luxuries
and more on necessaries we should have had money in hand instead
of--let me see!" and she began adding up the various items before
her with soft, quick little pats of her fingers on the table.
Presently, having found the total, she leaned back in her chair
and, summoning my attention with a tap of her pen, announced: "We have spent nine shillings and tenpence, Peter!"
"Good, indeed!" said I.
"Leaving exactly--twopence over."
"A penny for you, and a penny for me."
"I fear I am a very bad housekeeper, Peter."
"On the contrary."
"You earn ten shillings a week."
"Well?"
"And here is exactly--twopence left--oh, Peter!"
"You are forgetting the tea and the beef, and--and the other
luxuries," said I, struck by the droop of her mouth.