oarding-house! But, Edith, to come back to what we were conversing
about, it would be something to save the expense of our waiter; but
what are three or four dollars a week, when we are going behind hand at
the rate of twenty?"

"If Mrs. Marion"--

Edith checked herself, and did not say what was in her mind. Mrs.
Darlington was silent, sighed again heavily, and then said--

"Yes; if it wasn't for the expense of keeping Mrs. Marion. And she has
no claim upon us."

"None but the claim of humanity," said Edith.

"If we were able to pay that claim," remarked Mrs. Darlington.

"True."

"But we are not. Such being the case, are we justified in any longer
offering her a home?"

"Where will she go? What will she do?" said Edith.

"Where will we go? What will we do, unless there is a change in our
favour?" asked Mrs. Darlington.

"Alas, I cannot tell! When we are weak, small things are felt as a
burden. The expense of keeping Mrs. Marion and her two children is not
very great. Still, it is an expense that we are unable to meet. But how
can we tell her to go?"

"I cannot take my children's bread and distribute it to others,"
replied Mrs. Darlington, with much feeling. "My first duty is to them."

"Poor woman! My heart aches for her," said Edith. "She looks so pale
and heart-broken, feels so keenly her state of dependence, and tries so
in every possible way to make the pressure of her presence in our
family as light as possible, that the very thought of turning her from
our door seems to involve cruelty."

"All that, Edith, I feel most sensibly. Ah me! into what a strait are
we driven!"

"How many times have I wished that we had never commenced this
business!" said Edith. "It has brought us nothing but trouble from the
beginning; and, unless my fears are idle, some worse troubles are yet
before us."

"Of what kind?"

"Henry did not come home until after two o'clock this morning."

"What!" exclaimed the mother in painful surprise.

"I sat up for him. Knowing that he had gone out with Mr. Barling, and,
finding that he had not returned by eleven o'clock, I could not go to
bed. I said nothing to Miriam, but sat up alone. It was nearly half
past two when he came home in company with Barling. Both, I am sorry to
say, were so much intoxicated, that they could scarcely make their way
up stairs."

"Oh, Edith!" exclaimed the stricken mother, hiding her face in her
hands, and weeping aloud.

Miriam entered the roo