Mumford felt a trifle ashamed to make the necessary declaration; at the outside, even with expenses of painting and papering, their actual damage could not be estimated at more than fifty pounds, and even Emmeline did not wish to save appearances by making an excessive demand.

The one costly object in the room--the piano--was practically uninjured, and sundry other pieces of furniture could easily be restored; for Cobb and his companion, as amateur firemen, had by no means gone recklessly to work.

By candle-light, when the floor was still a swamp, things looked more desperate than they proved to be on subsequent investigation; and it is wonderful at how little outlay, in our glistening times, a villa drawing-room may be fashionably equipped.
So Mumford wrote to his correspondent that only a few 'articles' had absolutely perished; that it was not his wish to make any demand at all; but that, if Mr.Cobb insisted on offering restitution, why, a matter of fifty pounds, etc.etc.And in a few days this sum arrived, in the form of a draft upon respectable bankers.
Of course the house was in grievous disorder.

Upholsterers' workmen would have been bad enough, but much worse was the establishment of Mrs.Higgins by her daughter's bedside, which naturally involved her presence as a guest at table, and the endurance of her conversation whenever she chose to come downstairs.

Mumford urged his wife to take her summer holiday--to go away with the child until all was put right again--a phrase which included the removal of Miss Derrick to her own home; but of this Emmeline would not hear.