"
"Yes?" Mrs. Abbott was now alarmed. She had a very keen sense of the value
of money, like most persons that have inherited it, and was extremely
conservative in its use.
"Well, you see, I thought I saw a chance to treble it--we never really had
enough--and I speculated and lost it."
Alexina was a passionate lover of the truth, but she could always lie like
a gentleman.
Maria Abbott readjusted her spectacles and took a stitch or two in her
linen. She was aghast and did not care to speak for a moment. She was no
fool and Tom had told her that Mortimer had changed his business and might
bluff the street, but could never bluff him. She knew quite as well as if
Alexina had confessed it that Mortimer had lost the money, either in his
business or in stocks; although of course she was far from suspecting the
whole truth.
III
"That is dreadful," she said finally. "I wish you had consulted Tom. He
understands stocks as he does everything else."
"I thought I had the best tips. However--the thing is done, and the point
is that I must make great changes. Mortimer is not making as much as he
was, either; he came to the conclusion that he couldn't get anywhere in
that business on so small a capital, and has gone into real estate. It will
be some time before he makes enough to keep things going in the old way.
I made all my plans last night and came down to ask you if you could take
James.
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