"I have done all I can. Such things are beyond our reach, and mere medicine does no good."
"Have you told my mother and my sisters?"
"I have told your mother. She expected it from the start," replied the doctor. "You had better go in now. Your father wishes to speak to you," he added.
Richard entered the front chamber at once. As he did so, his mother passed out, her eyes filled with tears.
"Did he tell you?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied, without being able to utter another word.
"Oh, Richard, I never, never thought that such a thing would happen!
Where are Nan and the rest?"
"In the kitchen."
"I must tell them. It is hard on the poor girls."
"And hard on you," said Dick. "And me, too," he added, with a sigh.