" Then
Emily covered her face with her hands and burst into violent tears.
She had not determined whether she did or did not believe this
last accusation made against her husband. She had had hardly time
to realise the criminality of the offence imputed. But she did
believe that the woman before her had been ruined by her husband's
speculations. "It's very bad, ma'am; isn't it?" said Mrs. Parker,
crying for company. "It's bad all round. If you had five children as
hadn't bread you'd know how it is that I feel. I've got to go back
by the 10.15 to-night, and when I've paid for a third-class ticket I
shan't have but twopence left in the world."

This utter depth of immediate poverty, this want of bread for the
morrow and the next day, Emily could relieve out of her own pocket.
And, thinking of this and remembering that her purse was not with her
at the moment, she started up with the idea of getting it. But it
occurred to her that that would not suffice; that her duty required
more of her than that. And yet, by her own power, she could do no
more. From month to month, almost from week to week, since her
husband's death, her father had been called upon to satisfy claims
for money which he would not resist, lest by doing so he should add
to her misery. She had felt that she ought to bind herself to the
strictest personal economy because of the miserable losses to which
she had subjected him by her ill-starred marriage. "What would you
wish me to do?" she said, resuming her seat.

"You are rich," said Mrs. Parker. Emily shook her head. "They say
your papa is rich. I thought you would not like to see me in want
like this."

"Indeed, indeed, it makes me very unhappy."

"Wouldn't your papa do something? It wasn't Sexty's fault nigh
so much as it was his. I wouldn't say it to you if it wasn't for
starving. I wouldn't say it to you if it wasn't for the children.
I'd lie in the ditch and die if it was only myself, because--because
I know what your feelings is. But what wouldn't you do, and what
wouldn't you say, if you had five children at home as hadn't a loaf
of bread among 'em?" Hereupon Emily got up and left the room, bidding
her visitor wait for a few minutes. Presently the offensive butler
came in, who had wronged Mrs. Parker by watching his master's coats,
and brought a tray with meat and wine. Mr. Wharton, said the altered
man, hoped that Mrs. Parker would take a little refreshment, and he
would be down himself very s