This said private account amounted to the sum of a hundred and seventy-five pounds, odd shillings, and it extended over a period of three years.

Not a single installment had been paid on it.

Under the last line was an entry to this effect: "Written to for the third time, June 23d." I pointed to it, and asked the milliner if that meant "last June." Yes, it did mean last June; and she now deeply regretted to say that it had been accompanied by a threat of legal proceedings.
"I thought you gave good customers more than three years' credit ?" says I.
The milliner looks at Mr.Yatman, and whispers to me, "Not when a lady's husband gets into difficulties." She pointed to the account as she spoke.

The entries after the time when Mr.Yatman's circumstances became involved were just as extravagant, for a person in his wife's situation, as the entries for the year before that period.

If the lady had economized in other things, she had certainly not economized in the matter of dress.
There was nothing left now but to examine the cash-book, for form's sake.