Mrs.McEwan was an energetic, capable, intelligent woman, tolerant of her husband's failings, ambitious for her children.

She took a large house, furnished it on the installment plan, and filled it with boarders.

The boarders gave the family an income larger than they had ever possessed before, and McEwan's contributions fell off.

He became an unpaying guest himself.

All his earnings, he explained, were going into investments.
The man was, in fact, speculating in mining stocks.
One day McEwan came home with a face of despair.