View source for Pride and Prudence CHAPTER 15.

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<p>When George Ashton came home to his dinner, the first object that particularly attracted his eye, was a slip of paper upon the mantlepiece. He took it up and glanced over it. It was the landlord's bill for rent. He laid it down with a sigh, and went upstairs to seek for his sister. As he came into the room where she sat sewing, she raised her eyes to his with a look of pain and languor,<br><br>
    "Are you sick, Jane?" he asked quickly, going up to her, and laying his hand gently upon her cheek.<br><br>
    "No — yes — That is, I don't feel very well," Jane stammered out, and then, commenced weeping.<br><br>
    "What is the matter, sister?" George asked, seating himself by her side, and taking her hand tenderly in his. "Something has happened to distress you, what is it?"<br><br>
    "It's wrong in me to give way to my feelings, I know," Jane said, after a little while; "but I can't help it sometimes. I have felt depressed and discouraged all the morning. I felt bad enough before the <em>rent bill </em>came in. But since Mr. Langston was here, and said that he would call and see you at dinner time, I have not been able to keep up any heart at all. I believe I have made myself sick, for my head aches and throbs as if it would burst."<br><br>
    At that moment, the door bell rung.<br><br>
    "That is the <em>landlord </em>now, I suppose. What will you say to him, George?"<br><br>
    George sat with his eyes upon the floor, silent and almost motionless for about a minute, when the servant entered and said that Mr. Langston was below.<br><br>
    At this announcement, the young man heaved a long sigh. Then rising, he took two or three turns across the floor, irresolute still, what course to pursue. At length he went into the next room, where he slept, and took from a drawer the twenty dollars to which allusion has already been made. It was all the family possessed in the world. With this in his hand, he descended to meet the landlord.<br><br>
    "I believe your quarterly rent is due today," said that individual, smiling with one of those peculiar, indescribable smiles, which the <em>doomed debtor </em>has so often seen — a smile that had in it no soul — no warmth.<br><br>
    "Yes — yes!" returned George, in a hesitating tone, and with an <em>embarrassed </em>manner. "I believe it is. Bu — but, I shall — n — not be able to give you the whole of it just now. Here are <em>twenty </em>dollars. The other will be ready for you soon."<br><br>
    The smile faded instantly from the face of the landlord. "How soon?" he asked, looking George steadily and coldly in the face.<br><br>
    "In about three weeks."<br><br>
    "Three weeks! It is due <em>today</em>, and I need the money particularly. I fully calculated on receiving it."<br><br>
    "I am sorry," George said, more firmly; for the importunity of the landlord chafed him, "but I can't help it. In three weeks, the balance of rent will be ready for you — not before."<br><br>
    "Humph!" sneered the landlord, reaching out his hand for the twenty dollars offered by the young man. For a moment, George was tempted not to hand it over to him then, but to compel him to wait for the whole sum, until a month's salary was due him. But his eagerness to pay what he owed, subdued this impulse. The landlord gave a receipt for this amount in silence, and then left the house.<br><br>
    When George re-ascended to the room where he had left his sister, he found her still weeping. She lifted her eyes as he came in, with a look of affectionate sympathy.<br><br>
    "Did he consent to wait?" she asked, in evident anxiety.<br><br>
    "Of course," George replied. "He had no other alternative."<br><br>
    "But what are we now to do?" Jane said. "We have not a dollar in the house, and nothing more will be due you for three weeks. Even then, we shall not be any better off, for there are several little bills to pay, besides the rent bill; these will take all that then comes in. As for me, it seems as if I didn't earn anything."<br><br>
    Her brother made no reply; Mrs. Ashton came in at the moment.<br><br>
    "What had Mr. Langston to say?" she asked.<br><br>
    "What could he say? I paid him twenty dollars, and put him off three weeks for the balance."<br><br>
    "Paid him twenty dollars! The last cent we had in the house! Are you beside yourself, boy! What do you think we are going to live upon for the next three weeks?"<br><br>
    "Don't speak so to George, mother!" Jane said quickly in a deprecating voice. "He does the <em>best </em>he can for us. I can earn enough, I am sure, to buy all we need for three weeks. There are five dollars due me now by Mrs. Cloutier."<br><br>
    "And will continue to be <em>due </em>you. I didn't want you to work for her in the first place. But you thought you knew best."<br><br>
    "I'll get it, mother," was Jane's confident reply. "I'll see her this very afternoon."<br><br>
    "And suppose you should see her — and suppose she should pay you, which I don't believe she will — what is <em>five dollars </em>going to do towards supporting us for three weeks? I need that much myself this very day."<br><br>
    Neither Jane nor George replied to these <em>unfeeling words</em>. They felt that it would be altogether useless. But the words sank deeply into their hearts, and <em>pained </em>them intensely. After dinner, Jane put on her bonnet and went to see Mrs. Cloutier. She had done a good deal of work for her; but always had to call three or four times before she could get her money. Mrs. Cloutier was one of those <em>selfish </em>women who never consider the <em>condition of others</em> — who never think that a <em>seamstress</em>, <em>servant</em>, or <em>washerwoman </em>needs the money they have earned. Besides this negative defect — she had a positive one, namely, a <em>love of money</em> — and a consequent <em>reluctance </em>to part with it. She never paid anyone who worked for her, without being asked two or three times.<br><br>
    The amount due Jane had been allowed to stand for some weeks, because she disliked to call a second time upon a woman who had put her off once, and who always seemed to<em>grudge her the pittance she earned</em>. But now, the pain of asking for what was due her, was much less than the pain which would certainly follow, if she did not obtain the sum she needed. She, therefore, walked firmly and resolutely to the dwelling of Mrs. Cloutier, nor did her heart begin to flutter and sink in her bosom until she had rung the door bell, and then stood waiting to be admitted.<br><br>
    Much to her relief of mind, Mrs. Cloutier received her kindly, and paid her the five dollars for which she had called, without waiting to be asked.<br><br>
    This sum, with about four dollars besides, which Jane earned, was carefully economized, so as to last until George received his wages. In order to make her slender means sufficient for the bare necessaries required, Jane had, resolutely, to oppose her mother in the disposition evinced to spend money for articles not <em>really </em>needed. In these contentions, Mrs. Ashton often became <em>angry</em>, and spoke with <em>unkind harshness</em>. But Jane thought of her brother and persevered.<br><br>
    After the balance of the quarter's rent had been paid, and one or two other bills — eight dollars remained. This sum George gave to his sister, who regulated all the family expenditures. She disbursed it with such prudence, that, with her own earnings — it sufficed until another month's salary was due.<br>
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