She even heard a voice reproaching her as the cause of their common ruin: "Why did you humor me, woman, when I should have been corrected?
Why did you bring me up to beggary, as though I had been a prince?
why have taught me nothing whereby I could now at least earn my daily bread?
Why did you let me lavish in my youth the money which, frugally husbanded, might now have supported us in comfort?
Why did you do all this--you who were so boastful of your worldly wisdom ?" For a moment, so great was her mental anguish, that she almost looked her age--not that the picture had any terrors for herself, but upon her son's account alone.

She may not have been penitent, as good folks are, but her heart was full of another's woe, and had no room left for one selfish regret.

She had (in her vision) ruined both; but it was only for dear Dick that her tears fell.
If the guardian angel, which is said to watch for a time by every one of us, had not given up his disappointing vigil at poor Mrs.Yorke's elbow, a tremor of delight then stirred him limb and wing.

Nay, perhaps in the Great Day, when all our plans shall be scrutinized, whether they have been carried out or not, this poor, impotent, fallacious one, which worldly Mrs.Yorke had formed for her son's future, will stand, perchance, when others which recommend themselves better to human eyes have toppled down, because built on the rotten foundations of self.
There will certainly be many worse ones.

She did not propose to sell her offspring, as match-making mothers do, to evil bidders.