'But why pinch? You told me before that we had enough on which to live quietly but comfortably.'
'I was mistaken. I have had a great and unexpected loss.'
'Loss, mamma! What loss?'
'I mean—well,' the old lady stammered, 'I mean a sore disappointment. I am not so well off as I had supposed. I had miscalculated my resources.'
'Have you only just discovered what your means really are?'
'You must not excite her,' said Janet reproachfully.
'I do not wish to do so,' explained Salome. 'But I am so surprised, so puzzled—and this is such an upset of our plans at the last moment, after I had engaged the lodgings—I do not know what to think about it.' She paused, considered, and said with a flush in her face: 'Mamma, you surely had not reckoned on poor uncle's will?'
Mrs. Cusworth hesitated, then said: 'Of course, it is a severe blow to me that no provision had been made for you and me. We might fairly have reckoned on receiving something after what was done for Janet, and you were his favourite.'
'Oh, mamma, you did not count on this?'
'Remember that you are left absolutely destitute. What little I have saved will hardly support us both. Janet can do nothing for us just now.'