Fearfully she believed she was coming to some revelation, and, despite her keen determination to know, she found herself shrinking.
"Dad, mother told me before she died that the Isbels had ruined you," said Ellen, very low.

It hurt her so to see her father cover his face that she could hardly go on.

"If they ruined you they ruined all of us.

I know what we had once--what we lost again and again--and I see what we are come to now.

Mother hated the Isbels.