One day poor Mrs. Scratchell ventured to ask her daughter for a little help. The tax-gatherer was pressing, and ‘father’ had nothing put aside for the taxes. ‘Oh, mamma,’ cried Bella, ‘what has he done with Mr. Harefield’s five hundred pounds? That ought to have set him up for life.’ ‘My dear child, you must remember, surely. Father acted with the greatest prudence, and invested his legacy safely in railway shares. It brings us twenty-seven pounds a year. It doesn’t make a large addition, you see, and last year was so expensive. Bread was a penny dearer than it has been for ten years, and potatoes were dreadfully scarce. Altogether things have got behindhand with us----’ ‘I never knew them to be beforehand,’ sighed Bella. ‘But it’s a great comfort to see you so splendidly established. I’m sure I feel a thrill whenever I enter this house and think, “This is my daughter’s. My child is the mistress of it all.” I feel almost as Esther’s relations must have felt when they saw her sitting beside the king. And now, dear, if you could let me have ten pounds----’ ‘My dear mother, I haven’t ten shillings. Look, here’s my purse. You can count the silver, if you like.’ She handed Mrs. Scratchell a toy of mother-o’-pearl and gold, lined with rose-hued silk. ‘Oh, Bella, have you spent _all_ your last half-year’s income?’ ‘Every sixpence, except what you see there.’ ‘My love, you must have been very extravagant--after such a trousseau as you had to start with.’ ‘Why, mamma, there were lots of things forgotten in my trousseau. And then the fashions are always changing, and I have given my sisters such heaps of things. I dare say I have been extravagant in that particular. I am sure I have dressed Tina from head to foot.’ ‘You have been very good, dear; but I so counted on you for the taxes. I thought a ten pound note would be nothing to you.’ ‘That was a tremendous mistake. I assure you that for actual ready money I have been worse off since I have been Mr. Piper’s wife than I was as his governess. There are so many demands upon my purse. But if I can do anything next Christmas----’ ‘Thank you, dear. We must get on somehow, I suppose. We always have struggled through our difficulties, and I suppose we always shall, thanks to Providence; but it’s a wearing life.’