likely to marry, however exalted his rank. I was not
without fears that George was spending too much money; but we've always
had plenty for whatever we wanted to do; and so I let him go on when I
should have stopped him. It was my vanity. It wasn't his fault. He
inherited a large fortune; and if I had only brought him up wisely, it
would have been enough."

"And wasn't it enough?"

In spite of her growing dread, Diane brought out the question firmly.
Mrs. Eveleth sat one long minute motionless, with hands clasped, with
lips parted, and with suspended breath.

"No."

The monosyllable seemed to fill the room. It echoed and re-echoed in
Diane's ears like the boom of a cannon. While her outward vision took in
such details as the despair in Mrs. Eveleth's face, the folds of crape
on her gown, the Watteau picture on the panel of moss-green and gold
that formed the background, all the realities of life seemed to be
dissolving into chaos, as the glories of the sunset sink into a black
and formless mass. When Mrs. Eveleth spoke again, her voice sounded as
though it came from far away.

"I want to take all the blame upon myself. If it hadn't been for me,
George would never have gone to such extremes."

"Extremes?"

Diane spoke not so much from the desire to speak as from the necessity
of forcing her reeling intelligence back to the world of fact.

"I'm afraid there's no other word for it."

"Do you mean that there are debts?"

"A great many debts."

"Can't they be paid?"

"Most of them can be paid--perhaps all; but when that is done I'm afraid
there will be very little left."

"But surely we haven't lived so extravagantly as that. I know I've spent
a great deal of money--"

"It hasn't been altogether the style of living. When my poor boy saw
that he was going beyond his means he tried to recoup himself by
speculation. Do you know what that is?"

"I know it's something by which people lose money."

"He had no experience of anything of the kind, and his men of business
tell me he went into it wildly. He had that optimistic temperament which
always believes that the next thing will be a success, even though the
present one is a failure. Then, too, he fell into the hands of
unscrupulous men, who made him think that great fortunes were to be made
out of what they call wildcat schemes, when all the time they were
leading him to ruin."

Ruin! The word appealed to Diane's memory and imagination alike. It came
to