`` She looks very pale . They say they are dreadfully poor since Henry Mitchell died . His affairs were in a bad condition , I am told . '' `` I am sorry for Mrs. Mitchell , '' responded Mrs. Saunders . `` She is such a sweet woman . Lilian will have to do something , I suppose , and there is so little chance for a girl here . '' Lilian , walking down the street , was wearily turning over in her mind the problems of her young existence . Her father had died the preceding spring . He had been a supposedly prosperous merchant ; the Mitchells had always lived well , and Lilian was a petted and only child . Then came the shock of Henry Mitchell 's sudden death and of financial ruin . His affairs were found to be hopelessly involved ; when all the debts were paid there was left only the merest pittance -- barely enough for house-rent -- for Lilian and her mother to live upon . They had moved into a tiny cottage in an unfashionable locality , and during the summer Lilian had tried hard to think of something to do . Mrs. Mitchell was a delicate woman , and the burden of their situation fell on Lilian 's young shoulders . There seemed to be no place for her . She could not teach and had no particular talent in any line . There was no opening for her in Willington , which was a rather sleepy little place , and Lilian was almost in despair . `` There really does n't seem to be any real place in the world for me , Mother , '' she said rather dolefully at the supper table . `` I 've no talent at all ; it is dreadful to have been born without one . And yet I must do something , and do it soon . '' And Lilian , after she had washed up the tea dishes , went upstairs and had a good cry .
But the darkest hour , so the proverb goes , is just before the dawn , and after Lilian had had her cry out and was sitting XXXXX her window in the dusk , watching a thin new moon shining over the trees down the street , her inspiration came to her .
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