She saw herself becoming involved, helpless to prevent it, in the plan Mr.
Pyecroft considered so delectable; she saw herself later publicly exposed as engaged in this scheme to defraud herself; she could hear all New York laughing.

Her whole being shivered and gasped.

Of all the plans ever proposed to a woman--! And all the weeks and months this Mr.Pyecroft would be hovering about her!...
Despairingly she sat upright.
"Matilda, we can't stay in the same house with that man." "Oh, ma'am," breathed the appalled Matilda, "of course not!" "We've got to leave! And leave before he comes back!" "Of course, ma'am," cried Matilda.

And then: "But--but where ?" "Anywhere to get away from him!" "But, ma'am, the money ?" said Matilda who had handled Mrs.De Peyster's petty cash account for twenty years, and whose business it had been to think of petty practicalities.

"We've only got twenty-three cents left, and we can't possibly get any more soon, and no one will take us in without money or baggage.