Long before this the daughters had sought for something to do by which to earn a little money.

Pride struggled hard with them, but necessity was stronger than pride.
We finish the story in a few words.

In a moment of weakness, with want and hard work staring her in the face, one of the daughters married a man who broke her heart and buried her in less than two years.

The other, a weak and sickly girl, got a situation as day governess in the family of an old friend of her father's, where she was kindly treated, but she lived only a short time after her sister's death.
And still there was no abatement of the mother's infatuation.

She was more than half insane on the subject of policy gambling, and confident of yet retrieving her fortunes.
At the time Pinky Swett and her friend in evil saw her come gliding up from the restaurant in faded mourning garments and closely veiled, she was living alone in a small, meagrely furnished room, and cooking her own food.
Everything left to her at her husband's death was gone.