When he died, after struggling bravely to succeed in his business, he left nothing but his life-insurance." "Thank heaven he left that!" sighed Louise.
"Yes; we would have been beggared, indeed, without it," agreed Mrs.
Merrick.

"Yet I often wonder, Louise, how we managed to live upon the interest of that money for so many years." "We didn't live--we existed," corrected the girl, yawning.

"We scrimped and pinched, and denied ourselves everything but bare necessities.

And had it not been for your brilliant idea, mater dear, we would still be struggling in the depths of poverty." Mrs.Merrick frowned, and leaned back in her chair.
"I sometimes doubt if the idea was so brilliant, after all," she returned, with a certain grimness of expression.

"We're plunging, Louise; and it may be into a bottomless pit." "Don't worry, dear," said the girl, biting into a bonbon.