How is our money--

MASON. I am sorry to say there is _no_ money.

MRS. HUNTER. [_Echoes weakly._] No money?

MASON. Not a penny!

MRS. HUNTER. [_Realizing now what he means, cries out in a loud, hard,
amazed voice._] What!

BLANCHE. [_With her hand on her shoulder._] Mother!

MRS. HUNTER. I don't believe it!

RUTH. [_To_ MASON.] My good friend, do you mean that literally--that my
brother died without leaving _any_ money behind him?

MRS. HUNTER. For his wife and family?

MASON. I mean just that.

RUTH. But how?

MRS. HUNTER. Yes, _tell us the details_--every one of them! You can't
imagine the shock this is to me!

MASON. Hunter sent for me two days before he died, and told me things
had gone badly with him last year, but it seemed impossible to retrench
his expenses.