Home Again

"Why," returned Mrs. De Vere, "he had a paralytic shock more than
six months ago."

"Oh, poor father," cried Louis, while Mrs. De Vere continued, "It
was not a severe attack, but it has impaired his health somewhat.
You knew, of course, that his house and farm were to be sold."

"Our house, our old home! It shall not be!" and the tears glittered
in Louis' eyes, while, turning to Mrs. De Vere, Maude whispered
softly, "His wife has ruined him, but don't let us talk of it before
Louis."

The lady nodded, and when at last they were alone, told all she knew
of the affair. Maude Glendower had persisted in her folly until her
husband's property was reduced to a mere pittance. There was a heavy
mortgage upon the farm, and even a chattel-mortgage upon the
furniture, and as the man who held them was stern and unrelenting,
he had foreclosed, and the house was to be sold at auction. "Why has
mother kept it from us?" said Maude, and Mrs. De Vere replied,
"Pride and a dread of what you might say prevented her writing it, I
think.

I was there myself a few weeks since, and she said it could
do no good to trouble you. The doctor is completely broken down, and
seems like an old man. He cannot endure the handsome rooms below,
but stays all day in that small garret chamber, which is furnished
with your carpet, your mother's chair, and the high-past bedstead
which his first wife owned."