 more of the misery consequent upon this failure?
She almost made me angry by dividing her sympathy between these directors (whom
she imagined overwhelmed by self-reproach for the mismanagement of other
people's affairs) and those who were suffering like her. Indeed, of the two, she
seemed to think poverty a lighter burden than self-reproach; but I privately
doubted if the directors would agree with her.
    Old hoards were taken out and examined as to their money value, which
luckily was small, or else I don't know how Miss Matty would have prevailed upon
herself to part with such things as her mother's wedding-ring, the strange,
uncouth brooch with which her father had disfigured his shirt-frill, etc.
However, we arranged things a little in order as to their pecuniary estimation,
and were all ready for my father when he came the next morning.
    I am not going to weary you with the details of all the business we went
through; and one reason for not telling about them is, that I did not understand
what we were doing at the time, and cannot recollect it now. Miss Matty and I
sat assenting to accounts, and schemes, and reports, and documents, of which I
do not believe we either of us understood a word; for my father was clear-headed
and decisive, and a capital man of business, and if we made the slightest
inquiry, or expressed the slightest want of comprehension, he had a sharp way of
saying, »Eh? eh? it's as clear as daylight. What's your objection?« And as we
had not comprehended anything of what he had proposed, we found it rather
difficult to shape our objections; in fact, we never were sure if we had any. So
presently Miss Matty got into a nervously acquiescent state, and said »Yes,« and
»Certainly,« at every pause, whether required or not; but when I once joined in
as chorus to a »Decidedly,« pronounced by Miss Matty in a tremblingly dubious
tone, my father fired round at me and asked me »What there was to decide?« And I
am sure to this day I have never known. But, in justice to him, I must say he
had come over from Drumble to help Miss Matty when he could ill spare the time,
and when his own affairs were in a very anxious state.
    While Miss Matty was out of the room giving orders for luncheon - and sadly
perplexed between her desire of honouring my father by a delicate, dainty
