CHAPTER VIII.
Two weeks more went by, and the pressure upon Mrs.Darlington was heavier and heavier.

Her income was below her table expenses and servant-hire, and all her reserve fund being exhausted, she felt the extremity of her circumstances more than at any time before.

To bear longer the extra weight of poor, deserted Mrs.Marion and her two children was felt to be impossible.

With painful reluctance did Mrs.
Darlington slowly make up her mind to say to Mrs.Marion that she must seek another home; and for this purpose she one day waited upon her in her room.

As tenderly and as delicately as possible did she approach the subject.