MRS. HUNTER. [Beginning to break down.] George!  George!

[RUTH looks at her, furious, and bites her lips hard. JESSICA is standing with her back toward them.

MASON.  Well, then—­

[He is interrupted by MRS. HUNTER, who sees JESSICA.

MRS. HUNTER.  Jess!  How rude you are!  Turn around this minute! [JESSICA does not move.] What do you mean!  Excuse me, Mr. Mason!  Jess!  Such disrespect to your father’s will!  Turn around! [Angry.] Do you hear me?

JESSICA. [With her back still turned, her shoulders shaking, speaks in a voice broken with sobs.] Leave me alone!  Leave me alone—­

[She sits in a chair beside her and leans her arms upon its back and buries her face in her arms.

BLANCHE. [With her hand on her mother’s arm.] Mother!  Don’t worry her!

MRS. HUNTER.  Go on, please, Mr. Mason, and remember, spare us the details. What is our income?

MASON.  Mrs. Hunter, there is no income.

MRS. HUNTER. [Quietly, not at all grasping what he means.] No income! 
How is our money—­

MASON.  I am sorry to say there is no money.

MRS. HUNTER. [Echoes weakly.] No money?

MASON.  Not a penny!

MRS. HUNTER. [Realizing now what he means, cries out in a loud, hard, amazed voice.] What!

BLANCHE. [With her hand on her shoulder.] Mother!

MRS. HUNTER.  I don’t believe it!

RUTH. [To MASON.] My good friend, do you mean that literally—­that my brother died without leaving any money behind him?

MRS. HUNTER.  For his wife and family?

MASON.  I mean just that.

RUTH.  But how?

MRS. HUNTER.  Yes, tell us the details—­every one of them!  You can’t imagine the shock this is to me!

MASON.  Hunter sent for me two days before he died, and told me things had gone badly with him last year, but it seemed impossible to retrench his expenses.

RUTH. Are you listening, Florence?

MRS. HUNTER.  Yes, of course I am; your brother was a very extravagant man!

MASON.  This year, with his third daughter coming out, there was need of more money than ever.  He was harassed nearly to death with financial worries. [RUTH begins to cry softly. MRS. HUNTER gets angrier and angrier.] And finally, in sheer desperation, and trusting to the advice of the Storrings, he risked everything he had with them in the Consolidated Copper.  The day after, he was taken ill.  You know what happened.  The Storrings, Hunter, and others were ruined absolutely; the next day Hunter died.

RUTH.  Poor George!  Why didn’t he come to me; he must have known that everything I had was his!

MASON.  He was too ill when the final blow came to realize it.

MRS. HUNTER. [Angry.] But his life insurance,—­there was a big policy in my name.