“No, no,” I said, “it cannot be.”
“I was so happy, and now the cruelty of fate.”
“Calm yourself and tell me all. We shall never part, come what may.”
“We are ruined,” she sobbed. “My father, my poor father risked
everything in Chicago and he has lost. Home, money, everything must go
and yet there will remain a debt of honor for twenty thousand dollars.
This money was entrusted to him by a widow, it was her all. The shock
was more than he could bear, he has had a paralytic stroke and the
doctors say he will never recover. He may live for years but will be
helpless. Mother, as you know, is an invalid, and, she paused and wiped
away her tears. How can I tell you? but I must, only yesterday Fred
Reingold asked me to be his wife. He knows all and yet he declares that
if I will consent, the old home shall be saved and the debt of honor
paid. What am I to do? In one year we shall be turned into the street.
Mother has a few hundred dollars, we can subsist upon it for a year by
discharging all the servants and living with the greatest economy. Then
will come the poor-house for father and mother, and for me God only
knows.”
“Some way will open,” I murmured.
“What way?”