"Try and be calm, dearest! Tell me, and I will help you.

What is lost ?" He tried to struggle from her arms, tried to push her from him.
"You know!" he mumbled.

"You've watched me--you know the truth! Everything is lost! I am ruined! The mortgage! Herondale will pass away! I am a poor man, a very poor man! Have pity on me, have pity on me!" He slipped, by their weight, from her arms and fell into the chair.

She sank on to her knees, her arms still round him, and stroked and caressed his withered hand that twitched and shook; and to her horror his stony eyes grew more vacant, his jaw dropped, and he sank still lower in the chair.

"Jessie! Jason!" she called, and they rushed in.
For a space they stood aghast and unhelpful from fright, then Jason tried to lift his master from the heap into which he had collapsed.