the sitting-room.

"To support themselves? Are they so hard up?" Miss Bart asked with a
touch of irritation: she had not come to listen to the woes of other
people.

"I'm afraid they have nothing left: Ned's debts have swallowed up
everything. They had such hopes, you know, when he broke away from Carry
Fisher; they thought Bertha Dorset would be such a good influence,
because she doesn't care for cards, and--well, she talked quite
beautifully to poor Miss Jane about feeling as if Ned were her younger
brother, and wanting to carry him off on the yacht, so that he might have
a chance to drop cards and racing, and take up his literary work again."

Miss Farish paused with a sigh which reflected the perplexity of her
departing visitor. "But that isn't all; it isn't even the worst. It seems
that Ned has quarrelled with the Dorsets; or at least Bertha won't allow
him to see her, and he is so unhappy about it that he has taken to
gambling again, and going about with all sorts of queer people. And
cousin Grace Van Osburgh accuses him of having had a very bad influence
on Freddy, who left Harvard last spring, and has been a great deal with
Ned ever since. She sent for Miss Jane, and made a dreadful scene; and
Jack Stepney and Herbert Melson, who were there too, told Miss Jane that
Freddy was threatening to marry some dreadful woman to whom Ned had
introduced him, and that they could do nothing with him because now he's
of age he has his own money. You can fancy how poor Miss Jane felt--she
came to me at once, and seemed to think that if I could get her something
to do she could earn enough to pay Ned's debts and send him away--I'm
afraid she has no idea how long it would take her to pay for one of his
evenings at bridge. And he was horribly in debt when he came back from
the cruise--I can't see why he should have spent so much more money under
Bertha's influence than Carry's: can you?"

Lily met this query with an impatient gesture. "My dear Gerty, I always
understand how people can spend much more money--never how they can spend
any less!"

She loosened her furs and settled herself in Gerty's easy-chair, while
her friend busied herself with the tea-cups.

"But what can they do--the Miss Silvertons? How do they mean to support
themselves?" she asked, conscious that the note of irritation still
persisted in her voice. It was the very last topic she had meant to
discuss--it really did not interest her in the least--but she