"A letter I read without his permission, though he left it on the table and probably didn't care. I have been troubled vaguely for some time to find he knew nothing whatever about his business affairs, and that he merely drew on his lawyer for what he wanted, and was always content so long as he got it. Lately, however, although he had been looking for a remittance, the lawyer's letter came without it, and it was that letter that I read. I saw he looked annoyed, but not for long. He put the letter down and spent the evening playing solitaire, as he always does when he doesn't go to the theatre. After he went to bed I read the letter. It was from the lawyer in the far West, who had always had charge of the money left by his father--and he said that having repeatedly warned him that he could not go on spending his principal without coming to the end of his rope, he had to tell him now that the end was almost reached. He might manage to send him a remittance soon by selling some bonds at a great sacrifice, and as his orders were imperative of course he would have to do this, but he notified him that there was scarcely anything left, a certain tract of land, which was almost valueless, and that, he said, was the entire remnant of his inheritance, which could never have been very much as he certainly has no extravagant tastes." "Why didn't you tell him you had read the letter and ask him about it?" said Hannah, her rather acute little face animated and serious at once. "I did." "And what did he say?" "That a woman had no business meddling with men's affairs, and that he could not help it." "But if it is so why doesn't he get something to do?" "I asked him and he said he couldn't." "But had he tried?" "He said he had--several times." "What could he do?" Christine shook her head. "I have wondered," she said, "and I can think of nothing. He said he was not trained to any business, and I know no more what to tell him to do than he knows himself. The lawyer advised him to go to work, but did not suggest how. He spoke as if he did not know of his marriage, for he said a man ought to be able to get something to do that would support one." "Oh, Christine! and is this all you accomplished?" "This is all." "How long ago was it?" "About a week." "And you have gone through with all that rehearsing and dressing and acting with this weight on your mind? How could you do it?"