hysterics._] _Mortgaged_, I presume! Oh, it's insulting! It's an
indignity. It's--it's--Oh, well, it's just like my husband, there!

BLANCHE. Mother!

[RUTH _rises, and, taking_ MASON'S _arm, leads him aside._

MRS. HUNTER. [_To_ BLANCHE.] Oh, don't talk to me now! You always
preferred your father, and now you're punished for it! He has wilfully
left your mother and sisters paupers!

BLANCHE. How can you speak like that! Surely you know father must have
suffered more than we could when he realized he was leaving nothing for
you.

JESSICA. Yes, and it was for us too that he lost all. It was our
extravagance.

MRS. HUNTER. Hush! How dare _you_ side against me, too?

RUTH. Florence--

MRS. HUNTER. Well, Ruth, what do you think of your brother now?

BLANCHE. [_To her mother._] Don't!

MASON. By whom were the arrangements for to-day made?

MRS. HUNTER. My son-in-law had most pressing business, and his friend--