A City Schoolgirl and Her Friends

CHAPTER I.. HARD FACTS. . 'These are the facts Miss Wharton; hard facts no doubt but you wished for the truth and indeed I could not have hidden it from you even if I had wished to do so.' So said a keen but kindly faced old gentleman as he sat in an office surrounded by despatch and deed boxes which proclaimed his profession to be that of a lawyer.. The young lady to whom these remarks were addressed and who was a pretty girl of twenty-one dressed in deep and obviously recent mourning now replied with a sad smile 'But I did not want you to hide anything from me; I wanted to hear the truth Mr. Stacey and I thank you very much for telling it to me. Then I may understand that we have just fifty pounds a year to live upon between the two of us?'. 'That is all I am sorry to say; at least all that you can count upon with any certainty for the present for the shares of which I have been trying to tell you at present bring in nothing and may never do so. Of course there is the furniture which might fetch a hundred or two for there are two or three valuable pieces; and besides that your father had some nice china and some fine old silver' observed Mr. Stacey.