But he steadily refused to take up any of the due-bills; at the same time that he promised to cancel them at some future period.
This did not, of course, suit the gambler, who sent threats of an immediate resort to legal proceedings.
Of all this Cara knew nothing; yet she could not help seeing that her husband was troubled, and this caused her to muse on what she had done with increasing uneasiness.

She no longer took any pleasure in the thoughts of new parlour carpets.

But it was too late, now, to retrace her steps of error.

The carpets were already in the hands of the upholsterers, and a few days would see them on the floor.
"I must tell him about them," said Cara to herself, about a week after her act of folly, as she sat, towards the close of day, brooding over what she had done.

"To be forewarned is to be forearmed.