“Then – what can – we do?” Aleda asked.
“I have not the slightest idea,” her brother replied, “and you know as well as I do, Aleda, there is nothing worth sixpence in the house or I should have sold it long ago.”
“But we must – have a roof over – our heads,” Aleda cried.
“I expect there is a cottage empty somewhere on the estate,” the Earl said thoughtfully, “but, as you know already, they are in a worse state than the house.”
They looked at each other for a moment.
“When I am in prison,” the Earl replied, “you will just have to camp here on your own.”
“That is just – what I am doing anyway,” Aleda answered. “There is only old Betsy left who has nowhere to go and Glover, who is – terrified of being – taken to the – workhouse.”
The Earl threw himself down onto a sofa that had not bee
