“He consulted their old family physician, who, after several visits to his patient, recommended an entire change of scene, occupations and interests for the despairing girl.
“Ah, poor Joseph Wyvil! And poor Lil! The doctor might as reasonably have recommended a yacht to the Mediterranean Sea and a palace on the coast of Sicily for this impoverished and embarrassed brother and sister.
“The expenses of the trial had absorbed all Joseph Wyvil’s savings, and even compelled him to mortgage his house.
“For to the lawyer’s fees and other legal costs there had been added the expenses of his own and his sister’s board and lodging at Carlisle, and of his own and the lawyer’s journey to London and back, and their hotel bills while in that city dancing attendance at Somerset House, and the loss of time and work.
“Joseph Wyvil was hopelessly embarrassed in money matters. The lately industrious, thriving and ‘fore-handed’ mechanic was financially ruined.
“Not by his own doings, but by the folly and calamity of his sister and brother.
“He had lost his work also, and could not recover it. This was a misfortune he had not in the least calculated upon. But another man had got his place, and there was no room for him.
“Joseph first sold his silver watch, and next the precious half dozen silver tea-spoons left him by his mother, to pay the interest on his notes and to bear current expenses. After that, piece by piece of the little parlor set went.
“But these could not last long. The crash came. The house was sold under the mortgage, and the little home was broken up. So much calamity may come of one little act of folly like Joe’s and Lil’s runaway marriage.
“Joseph took his sister and the remnant of his household furniture and moved into two rooms of a poor tenement house, and tried to get work even as a common laborer, but failed.