tried to
excuse her own conduct to her own satisfaction as she went. "There
are some things," she said, "which even a daughter cannot hear from
her mother. If she chooses to close the door against me, she must do
so."

She found Mrs. Broughton still in bed, and could not but agree with
her mother that the woman was both silly and heartless.

"Your mother says that everything must be sold up," said Mrs
Broughton.

"At any rate you would hardly choose to remain here," said Clara.

"But I hope she'll let me have my own things. A great many of them
are altogether my own. I know there's a law that a woman may have her
own things, even though her husband has--done what poor Dobbs did.
And I think she was hard upon me about the mourning. They never do
mind giving credit for such things as that, and though there is a
bill due to Mrs. Morell now, she has had a deal of Dobbs's money."
Clara promised her that she should have mourning to her heart's
content. "I will see to that myself," she said.

Presently there was a knock at the door, and the discreet
head-servant beckoned Clara out of the room. "You are not going
away," said Mrs. Broughton. Clara promised her that she would not
go without coming back again. "He will be here soon, I suppose,
and perhaps you had better see him; though, for the matter of that,
perhaps you had better not, because he is so much cut up about poor
Dobbs." The servant had come to tell Clara that the "he" in question
was at the present moment waiting for her below stairs.

The first words which passed between Dalrymple and Clara had
reference to the widow. He told her what he had learned in the
City,--that Broughton's property had never been great, and that
his personal liabilities at the time of his death were supposed to
be small. But he had fallen lately altogether into the hands of
Musselboro, who, though penniless himself in the way of capital,
was backed by the money of Mrs. Van Siever. There was no doubt that
Broughton had destroyed himself in the manner told by Musselboro,
but the opinion in the City was that he had done so rather through
the effects of drink than because of his losses. As to the widow,
Dalrymple thought that Mrs. Van Siever, or nominally, perhaps,
Musselboro, might be induced to settle an annuity on her, if she
would give up everything quietly. "I doubt whether your mother is not
responsible for everything that Broughton owed when he died,--for
everything, that is, in