She knew, too, she must not hesitate. "Eight pounds," she plunged, and 

added foolishly, "fifteen pounds will see me clear of everything." She 

muttered some unlady-like comment upon herself under her breath and 

engaged in secret additions. 

Mr. Stanley determined to improve the occasion. He seemed to deliberate. 

"Well," he said at last slowly, "I'll pay it. I'll pay it. But I do 

hope, Vee, I do hope--this is the end of these adventures. I hope you 

have learned your lesson now and come to see--come to realize--how 

things are. People, nobody, can do as they like in this world. 

Everywhere there are limitations." 

"I know," said Ann Veronica (fifteen pounds!). "I have learned that. I 

mean--I mean to do what I can." (Fifteen pounds. Fifteen from forty is 

twenty-five.) 

He hesitated. She could think of nothing more to say. 

"Well," she achieved at last. "Here goes for the new life!" 

"Here goes for the new life," he echoed and stood up. Father and 

daughter regarded each other warily, each more than a little insecure 

with the other. He made a movement toward her, and then recalled the 

circumstances of their last conversation in that study. She saw his 

purpose and his doubt hesitated also, and then went to him, took his 

coat lapels, and kissed him on the cheek. 

"Ah, Vee," he said, "that's better! and kissed her back rather clumsily. 

"We're going to be sensible." 

She disengaged herself from him and went out of the room with a grave, 

preoccupied expression. (Fifteen pounds! And she wanted forty!) 

Part 4 

It was, perhaps, the natural consequence of a long and tiring and 

exciting day that Ann Veronica should pass a broken and distressful 

night, a night in which the noble and self-subduing resolutions of 

Canongate displayed themselves for the first time in an atmosphere of 

almost lurid dismay. Her father's peculiar stiffness of soul presented 

itself now as something altogether left out of the calculations upon 

which her plans were based, and, in particular, she had not anticipated 

the difficulty she would find in borrowing the forty pounds she needed 

for Ramage. That had taken her by surprise, and her tired wits had 

failed her. She was to have fifteen pounds, and no more. She knew that 

to expect more now was like anticipating a gold-mine in the garden. The 

chance had gone. It became suddenly glaringly apparent to her that it 

was impossible to return fifteen pounds or any sum less than twenty 

pounds to Ramage--absolutely impossible. She realized that with a pang