Most things, however, can be bought at a price, and Mrs.Bertram had bought the silence of this troublesome ghost of the past.

She had bought it at a very heavy cost.
Her money was in the hands of trustees; she dared not go to them to assist her, therefore, the only price she could pay was out of her yearly income.
To quiet this troublesome ghost she agreed to part with four hundred a year.

A third of her means was, therefore, taken away with one fell swoop.

Loftus must still have his allowance, for Loftus of all people must know nothing of his mother's anxieties.

Mrs.Bertram and her girls would, therefore, have barely five hundred a year to live on.