h anger.

Mrs. Lawrence kept to her room, and was too ill to listen to business
details, even if she could have helped in any way, which she could not.
She fancied now, like many another woman, that her husband had been her
only delight in life, and that there was nothing left. When Agatha
suggested that she had been very short-sighted to consent to mortgaging
Hope Terrace, she cried, and said "she would have given up every thing
for him, and now that he was gone she wanted no fortune,--she should
never leave her room again until she was carried."

If there had been any bright little Sylvie to run in and comfort her!
any strong-hearted, tender woman, to whom he could turn! He seemed now
to realize more keenly what he had lost, than on the night Sylvie
rejected him. And that other strong, manly soul--no, bitterly as he
might regret, he could no more go back to him than to Sylvie.

He roused himself, and began his work, utterly astounded at the
extravagance that met him on every side. No doubt it looked right enough
when there was plenty of money; but it seemed now as if the servants had
been masters and mistresses, that all these luxuries existed for their
sake,--the gardens and graperies, the greenhouses with their wealth of
costly flowers; the horses standing idle in the stable, with only
servants to use them; his father a plain man, his mother confined mostly
to two or three rooms, and occasional visitors; supplies ordered
lavishly, and wasted in a manner that seemed wicked even to him. He
wondered in a vague way if the system was not radically wrong that
brought such waste and carelessness in vogue, when hundreds had not the
necessities of life. He remembered one talk his father had with Horace
Eastman over in the library yonder, with champagne and cigars between
them, in the height of one of the strikes, and how Eastman had figured
to a penny the exact percentage of wages the mill could afford to pay.
What if _they_ had given up a little of their luxury, and _he_ his
ill-gotten gains!

He had the pictures packed under his supervision, and sent to New York.
Not without a pang; for many of them he had selected, and each one had
some pleasant reminder. The choice collection of the greenhouse was
offered for sale, the elegant furniture, and all the most valuable of
the personal property. Times were hard, and sales were slow; but there
would be sufficient realized, it was thought, to pay the floating
indebtedness. Ho