She was a meek, reticent woman who entered and departed in dismal silence, and in a few moments the two young men were quite alone with the door closed.

They drank a cup of coffee each, and then Hope proceeded to read the confession.
The story told by Mrs.Jasher commenced with a short account of her early life.

It appeared that her father was a ruined gentleman and a gambler, and that her mother had been an actress.

She was dragged up in a Bohemian sort of way until she attained a marriageable age, when her mother, who seemed to have been both wicked and hard-hearted, forced her to marry a comparatively wealthy man called Jasher.

The elderly husband--for Jasher was not young--treated his wife very badly, and, infected with the spirit of gambling by her father, lost all his money.
Mrs.Jasher then went with him to America and performed on the stage in order to keep the home together.