Thus left to struggle on against the pressure of absolute want, suddenly and unexpectedly brought upon them, and with no internal or external resources upon which to fall promptly back, Mrs. Graham and her daughters were for a time overwhelmed with despair.  Alfred, to whom they should have looked for aid, advice, and sustenance, in this hour of severe trial, left almost entirely to himself, as far as his father had been concerned, for some two years, had sunk into habits of dissipation from which even this terrible shock had not the power to arouse him.  Having made himself angry in his opposition to, and resistance of, all his mother’s admonitions, warnings, and persuasions, he seemed to have lost all affection for her and his sisters.  So that a sense of their destitute and distressed condition had no influence over him—­at least, not sufficient to arouse him into active exertions for their support.  Thus were they left utterly dependent upon their own resources—­and what was worse, were burdened with the support of both father and brother.

The little that each had been able to save from the general wreck, was, as a means of sustenance, but small.  Two or three gold watches and chains, with various articles of (sic) jewelery, fancy work-boxes, and a number of trifles, more valued than valuable, made up, besides a remnant of household furniture, the aggregate of their little wealth.  Of course, the mother and daughters were driven, at once, to some expedient for keeping the family together.  A boarding-house, that first resort of nearly all destitute females, upon whom families are dependent, especially of those who have occupied an elevated position in society, was opened, as the only means of support that presented itself.  The result of this experiment, continued for a year and a half, was a debt of several hundred dollars, which was liquidated by the seizure of Mrs. Graham’s furniture.  But worse than this, a specious young man, one of the boarders, had won upon the affections of Ellen, and induced her to marry him.  He, too soon, proved himself to have neither a true affection for her, nor to have sound moral principles.  He was, moreover, idle, and fond of gay company.

On the day that Mrs. Graham broke up her boardinghouse, Markland, her daughter’s husband, was discharged from his situation as clerk, on account of inefficiency.  For six months previous, the time he had been married, he had paid no boarding, thus adding himself as a dead weight to the already overburdened family.  As he had no house to which he could take Ellen, he very naturally felt himself authorized to share the house to which the distressed family of her mother retired, seemingly regardless of how or by whom the food he daily consumed was provided.