The servants say the bank is broken; what does that mean, Phebe?
And poor Acton! They say he is dead--he did kill himself by poison.

Is it not true, Phebe?
Tell me it is not true!" But Phebe could say nothing to comfort her; she knew better than any one else the whole truth of the calamity.

But she held the weeping little woman in her strong young arms, and there was something consoling in her loving clasp.
"And where are the children ?" she asked, after a while.
"I sent them to play in the garden," answered Madame; "their own little plots are far away, out of sight of the dreadful street.

What good is it that they should know all this trouble ?" "No good at all," replied Phebe.

"And where is Mrs.Sefton ?" "Alas, my Phebe!" she exclaimed, "who dare tell her?
Not me; no, no! She is shut up in her little chamber, and she forgets all the world--her children even, and Roland himself.