human
Why, Margery, what is the trouble? have you had bad news? Do tell me.
gpt
I have just received a letter from Father. He has been crippled in business for some time by the recent bank failures, and now he has lost everything.
human
Oh, Margery, I am dreadfully sorry.
gpt
Mother is such an invalid that it will be hard on her. She has a little money of her own, not much, but enough, Father says, to pay up every cent he owes and to keep me here until I graduate.
human
It must be a comfort, Margery, to feel that he will not owe any person a cent.
gpt
Yes, it is, with an irrepressible sob,
human
You must be proud of the fact that your father can depend upon you, dear.
gpt
There is not much to be proud of. Just think, Beth, if I had not wasted so much of my time, I should be graduating this year. Now I cannot be of any help for nearly two years. That is the bitterest part of all. We have never been rich people, but Father made a comfortable living for us. I ought to have realized that it cost a great deal for him to send me here, and I should have made the most of my time--but I didn't.
human
No one could have done better than you have been doing lately, Margery.
gpt
But I cannot make up that lost year. That is the dreadful part of it. Repentance doesn't take away the consequences of one's folly, does it? We have to pay for it all. Just now, when I ought to be in a position to help at home, I am only an added burden. Father has seen this coming for years, but I did not know it. He lost many thousands of dollars in a great bank failure four years ago. He has never quite recovered from that blow. If there had not been several failures lately, though, among people who owed him money, he would have managed to pull through.
human
But you knew nothing of all this, Margery, so do not blame yourself too severely.
gpt
I knew that Father was not rich, and I ought not to have wasted my time. I know that I must graduate now, if I would teach, but it is dreadfully hard to think that I must use up my mother's little pittance for it.
human
But she wants you to take it, dear, and I am sure that the best thing you can do for your parents, now, is to be cheerful and happy. You will probably have many long years in which to work for them both; and really, Margery, you are working for them now just as truly as if you were earning money for them.
gpt
There, if I didn't forget your book! Let me tell you the news and then I will go back and get it.
human
Never mind the book, said Dolly when Beth had told the story.
gpt
I feel too wretched to use it tonight. I wish you would tell Constance, though. She may know how to comfort Margery a little, and perhaps she can devise some plan for helping her.
human
When she is ready to teach, I can help her, I am sure. I think it likely that she may be able to get a good position in one of the fashionable boarding-schools in New York; then she will not be obliged to leave home.