father, Harriett. He must be ill." She always thought of seventy-nine as
one continuous November.

Her father and mother were alone in the study for a long time; she
remembered Annie going in with the lamp and coming out and whispering that
they wanted her. She found them sitting in the lamplight alone, close
together, holding each other's hands; their faces had a strange, exalted
look.

"Harriett, my dear, I've lost every shilling I possessed, and here's your
mother saying she doesn't mind."

He began to explain in his quiet voice. "When all the creditors are paid
in full there'll be nothing but your mother's two hundred a year. And the
insurance money when I'm gone."

"Oh, Papa, how terrible----"

"Yes, Hatty."

"I mean the insurance. It's gambling with your life."

"My dear, if that was all I'd gambled with----"

It seemed that half his capital had gone in what he called "the higher
mathematics of the game." The creditors would get the rest.

"We shall be no worse off," her mother said, "than we were when we began.
We were very happy then."