ult indeed, and was only accomplished by adding a little debt to
the weight on the income scale.

She had said nothing to her sister about this sad change in their
affairs because she hoped against hope that soon they might have a
tenant, and she knew that her sister Eleanor was a woman of such strict
and punctilious honor that she would insist upon living upon plain
bread, if their supply of ready money was insufficient to buy anything
else. To see this sister insufficiently nourished was something which
Miss Barbara could not endure, and so, sorely against her disposition
and her conscience, she made some little debts; and these grew and grew
until at last they weighed her down until she felt as if she must always
look upon the earth and could never raise her head to the sky. And she
was so plump, and so white, and gentle, and quiet, and peaceful looking
that no one thought she had a care in the world until Willy Croup began
to suspect in New York that something was the matter with her, but did
not in the least attribute her friend's low spirits to the proper cause.

When Miss Barbara had favored so willingly and promptly the invitation
of Mrs. Cliff, she had done so because she saw in the New York visit a
temporary abolition of expense, and a consequent opportunity to lay up a
little money by which she might be able to satisfy for a time one of her
creditors who was beginning to suspect that she was not able to pay his
bill, and was therefore pressing her very hard. Even while she had been
in New York, this many-times rendered bill had been forwarded to her
with an urgent request that it be settled.

It was not strange, therefore, that a tear should sometimes come to the
eye of Miss Barbara when she stood by the side of her sister and Mrs.
Cliff and listened to them discussing the merits of some rich rugs or
pieces of furniture, and when she reflected that the difference in price
between two articles, one apparently as desirable as the other, which
was discussed so lightly by Mrs. Cliff and Eleanor, would pay that bill
which was eating into her soul, and settle, moreover, every other claim
against herself and her sister. But the tears were always wiped away
very quickly, and neither Mrs. Cliff nor the elder Miss Thorpedyke ever
noticed them.

But although Willy Croup was not at all a woman of acute perceptions,
she began to think that perhaps it was something more than the bustle
and noise of New York which was tr