Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham

would never end. When we went to bed I snuggled up to Robert and put my arms round his neck, for of course I knew he was worried and I wanted to console him, but he pushed me away.
    “ ‘For God’s sake leave me alone,’ he said. ‘I’m in no mood for love-making to-night. I’ve got other things to think about.’
    “I was bitterly wounded, but I didn’t speak. I moved away from him. He knew he’d hurt me, for in a little while he put out his hand and lightly touched my face.
    “ ‘Go to sleep, my sweet,’ he said. ‘Don’t be upset because I’m in a bad humour to-day. I drank too much yesterday. I shall be all right to-morrow.’
    “ ‘Was it your mother’s money?’ I whispered.
    “He didn’t answer at once.
    “ ‘Yes,’ he said at last.
    “ ‘Oh, Robert, how could you?’ I cried.
    “He paused again before he said anything. I was wretched. I think I began to cry.
    “ ‘If anyone should ask you anything you never saw me with the money. You never knew that I had any.’
    “ ‘How can you think I’d betray you?’ I cried.
    “ ‘And the trousers. Maman couldn’t get the stains out. She’s thrown them away.’
    “I suddenly remembered that I’d smelt something burning that afternoon while Robert was playing and I was sitting with him. I got up to see what it was.
    “ ‘Stay here,’ he said.
    “ ‘But something’s burning in the kitchen,’ I said.
    “ ‘Maman’s probably burning old rags. She’s in a dirty temper to-day, she’ll bite your head off if you go and interfere with her.’
    “I knew now that it wasn’t old rags she was burning; she hadn’t thrown the trousers away, she’d burnt them. I began to be horribly frightened, but I didn’t say anything. He took my hand.
    “ ‘If anyone should ask you about them,’ he said, ‘you must say that I got them so dirty cleaning a car that they had to be given away. My mother gave them to a tramp the day before yesterday. Will you swear to that?’
    “ ‘Yes,’ I said, but I could hardly speak.
    “Then he said a terrifying thing.
    “ ‘It may be that my head depends on it.’
    “I was too stunned, I was too horrified, to say anything. My head began to ache so that I thought it would burst. I don’t think I closed my eyes all night. Robert slept fitfully. He was restless even in his sleep and turned from side to side. We went downstairs early, but my mother-in-law was already in the kitchen. As a rule she was very decently dressed and when she went out she looked quite smart. She was a doctor’s widow and the daughter of a staff officer; she had a feeling about her position and she would let no one know to what economies she was reduced to make the show shedid when she went to pay visits on old army friends. Then, with her waved hair and her manicured hands, with rouge on her cheeks, she didn’t look more than forty; but now, her hair tousled, without any make-up, in a dressing-gown, she looked like an old procuress who’d retired to live on her savings. She didn’t say good morning to Robert. Without a word she handed him the paper. I watched him while he read it and I saw his expression change. He felt my eyes upon him and looked up. He smiled.
    “ ‘Well, little one,’ he said gaily, ‘what about this coffee? Are you going to stand there all the morning looking at your lord and master or are you going to wait on him?’
    “I knew there was something in the paper that would tell me what I had to know. Robert finished his breakfast and went upstairs to dress. When he came down again, ready to go out, I had a shock, for he was wearing the light gray suit that he had worn two days before, and the trousers that went with it. But then of course I remembered that he’d had a second pair made when he ordered the suit. There had been a lot of discussion about it. Madame Berger had grumbled at the expense, but he had insisted that he couldn’t hope to get a job unless he was decently dressed and at