“No, I was all right,” Carina replied in a low voice.
She paid the cab driver and hurried inside. In the hall she stopped and pressed something into Bertie’s hand.
“Here is all the money I raised,” she said. “It should take care of us all for a while.”
“Bless you,” he said. “Come in and have some tea with the rest of us.”
“No, I’ll just go upstairs, I think. I have a headache.”
“You are ill,” he said, taking her hands in his.
“No, I’m just – I had a shock, that’s all. I will be all right.”
She tore her hands from his and ran up the stairs lest he see that she was crying.
Bertie stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the money that she had given him and listening to the closing of her door above his head. He was deeply troubled.
He went to find Mrs. Babbage and paid her all
