After tea, Mary was busied for a short time in getting little Ella to sleep. When she returned, at length, to their sitting-room, she had a small package in her hand, which, with a smiling face, she laid upon the table at which her husband sat reading.
"What is that, dear?" he asked, lifting his eyes to her face.
"We shall soon see," was answered, and Mrs. Wilkinson commenced opening the package. In a moment or two, five or six rolls of coin were produced, nicely enveloped in paper.
"This is my sub-treasury," said she, with a smile. "I took an account of the deposits to-day, and find just five hundred and fifty dollars.
So, even if Mr. Ellis should fail to return the two hundred dollars he borrowed, you will still be three hundred and fifty dollars better off than you thought you were. So push every gloomy thought from your heart. All will come out right in the end."
Wilkinson looked at the money like one who could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses.
"This for the present," said Mrs. Wilkinson, leaning towards her husband, and fixing her gentle, yet earnest, loving eyes upon his face.
"This for the present. And now let me give you my plans for the future.
Your business is to earn money, and mine to expend so much of it as domestic comfort and well-being requires. Thus far I believe the expenditure has not been in a just ratio to the earnings. Speak out plainly, dear husband! and say if I am not right."
Wilkinson sat silent, gradually withdrawing his eyes from those of his wife, and letting them fall to the floor.
"Yes, I am right," said the latter, after a pause. "And such being the case, you have become pressed for money to conduct your business. A change, then, is required. We must lessen our expenses. And now listen to what I have to propose. I went this afternoon to see Mrs. Cap.r.o.n, and she says, that if we will furnish our own room, she will board us and a nurse for ten dollars a week."
"Board us!"
"Yes, dear. Won"t it be much better for us to take boarding for two or three years, until we can afford to keep a house?"
"But our furniture, Mary? What is to be done with that?"
"All provided for," said Mrs. Wilkinson, with sparkling eyes, and a countenance flushed with the excitement she felt. "We will have a sale."
"A sale!"
"Yes, a sale. And this will give you more money. We will live at half the present cost, and you will get back into your business at least a thousand dollars that never should have been taken from it."
"But the sacrifice, Mary!" said Wilkinson, as if seeking an argument against his wife.
"Did you never hear of such a thing," she replied, "as throwing over a part of the cargo to save the ship?"
"Bless you! Bless you, Mary!" exclaimed Wilkinson, in a broken voice, as he hid his face upon his wife"s bosom. "You have, indeed, saved me from shipwreck, body and soul, just as I was about to be thrown upon the breakers! Heaven will reward your devoted love, your tenderness, your long-suffering and patient forbearance. Thank G.o.d for such a wife!"
And the whole frame of the strong man quivered.
It was many minutes before either of them spoke; then Mr. Wilkinson lifted his face, and said calmly--
"Yes, Mary, we will do as you propose; for you have spoken wisely. I will need every dollar in my business that I can get. And now let me say a few words more. In times past I have not been as kind to you--as considerate--"
"Dear husband! let the past be as if it had not been. You were always kind, gentle, loving"--
"Let me speak what is in my mind. I wish to give it utterance,"
interrupted Wilkinson. "In times past, I have too often sought companionship from home, and such companionship has ever been dangerous and debasing. I have this day resolved to correct that error; and I will keep my resolution. Henceforth, home shall be to me the dearest place. And there is one more thing I wish to say"--
The voice of Wilkinson changed its expression, while a slight flush came into his face.
"There is one habit that I have indulged, and which I feel to be an exceedingly dangerous one. That habit I have solemnly promised, in the sight of Heaven, to correct. I will no longer put to my lips the cup of confusion."
Wilkinson was not prepared for the effect these words had upon his wife, who, instantly uttering a cry of joy, flung herself into her husband"s arms, sobbing--
"Oh! I am the happiest woman alive this day!"
CHAPTER XVIII.
TO Ellis the trials of the next two weeks were of the severest character. Yet, he kept himself away from drinking-houses, and struggled manfully to retain his feet under him. In this he was only sustained by the kindness of his wife"s manner, and the interest she seemed to feel in him. Had she acted towards him with her usual want of affectionate consideration, he would have fallen under the heavy burdens that rested upon him. Scarcely a day pa.s.sed in which he was not visited by Carlton"s agent, and fretted almost past endurance by his importunities. But he steadily refused to take up any of the due-bills; at the same time that he promised to cancel them at some future period.
This did not, of course, suit the gambler, who sent threats of an immediate resort to legal proceedings.
Of all this Cara knew nothing; yet she could not help seeing that her husband was troubled, and this caused her to muse on what she had done with increasing uneasiness. She no longer took any pleasure in the thoughts of new parlour carpets. But it was too late, now, to retrace her steps of error. The carpets were already in the hands of the upholsterers, and a few days would see them on the floor.
"I must tell him about them," said Cara to herself, about a week after her act of folly, as she sat, towards the close of day, brooding over what she had done. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed. In a few days the carpets will be sent home, and then"--
A slight inward shudder was felt by Cara, as she paused, with the sentence unfinished.
"But I"m foolish," she added, recovering herself, "very foolish. Why need I be so afraid of Henry? I have some freedom of action left--some right of choice. These were not all yielded in our marriage. His will was not made the imperative law of all my actions. No--no. And here lies the ground of difference between us. The fact is, he is to blame for this very thing, for he drove me to it."
But such thoughts did not satisfy the mind of Mrs. Ellis, nor remove the sense of wrong that oppressed her spirit. So, in a little while, she came back to her resolution to tell her husband, on that very evening, all about what she had done. This was her state of mind, when her friend Mrs. Claxton called in. After the first pleasant greeting, the lady, a.s.suming a slight gravity of manner, said--
"Do you know, Mrs. Ellis, that I"ve thought a good deal about the matter we talked of the last time I saw you?"
"To what do you allude?" asked Cara.
"To running up bills without your husband"s knowledge. All men are not alike, and Mr. Ellis might not take it so easily as Mr. Claxton has done. The fact is, I have been checked off a little, so to speak, within a day or two, and it has rather set me to thinking"
"In what way?" inquired Mrs. Ellis.
"I will tell you--but, remember, this is in the strictest confidence.
It might injure my husband"s business if it got out. In fact, I don"t think I have any right to tell you; but, as I advised you to follow my example, I must give you convincing proof that this example is a bad one. Last evening, when Mr. Claxton came home, he looked unusually serious. "Is any thing wrong?" I asked of him, manifesting in my voice and manner the concern I really felt. "Yes," said he, looking me fixedly in the eyes--"there is something wrong. I came within an ace of being protested to-day." "Indeed! How?" I exclaimed. "Listen," said he, "and you shall hear; and while you hear, believe, for I solemnly declare that every word I utter is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I could not spare the cash when your new carpet and upholstery bill came in, so I gave a note for the amount, which was over two hundred dollars. The note was for six months, and fell due to-day. I also gave a note for your new sofa, chairs, and French bedstead, because I had no cash with which to pay the bill. It was two hundred and fifty dollars, and the note given at four months. That also fell due to-day. Now, apart from these, I had more than my hands full to take up business paper, this being an unusually heavy day. At every point where I could do so I borrowed; but at half-past two o"clock I was still short the amount of these two notes. While in the utmost doubt and perplexity as to what I should do in my difficulty, two notes were handed in. One contained a dry goods bill which you had run up of over a hundred and fifty dollars, and the other a shoe bill of twenty-five. I cannot describe to you the paralyzing sense of discouragement that instantly came over me. It is hopeless for me to struggle on at such a disadvantage, said I to myself--utterly hopeless.
And I determined to give up the struggle--to let my notes lie over, and thus end the unequal strife in which I was engaged; for, to this, I saw it must come at last. Full twenty minutes went by, and I still sat in this state of irresolution. Then, as a vivid perception of consequences came to my mind, I aroused myself to make a last, desperate effort.
Hurriedly drawing a note at thirty days for five hundred dollars, I took it to a money-lender, whom I knew I could tempt by the offer of a large discount. He gave me for it a check on the bank in which my notes were deposited, for four hundred and fifty dollars. Just as the clock was striking three, I entered the banking-house."
"My husband paused. I saw by the workings of his face and by the large beads of perspiration which stood upon his forehead, that he was indeed in earnest. I never was so startled by any thing in my life. It seemed for a time as if it were only a dream. I need not say how sincerely I repented of what I had done, nor how I earnestly promised my husband never again to contract a debt of even a dollar without his knowledge.
I hope," added Mrs. Claxton, "that you have not yet been influenced by my advice and example; and I come thus early to speak in your ears a word of caution. Pray do not breathe aught of what I have told you--it might injure my husband--I only make the revelation as a matter of duty to one I tried to lead astray."
The thoughts of Mrs. Ellis did not run in a more peaceful channel after the departure of her friend. But she resolved to confess every thing to her husband, and promise to conform herself more to his wishes in the future.
"What," she said, "if he should be in like business difficulties with Mr. Claxton? He has looked serious for a week past, and has remained at home every evening during the time--a thing unusual. And I don"t think he has used liquor as freely as common. Something is the matter. Oh, I wish I had not done that!"
While such thoughts were pa.s.sing through the mind of Mrs. Ellis, her husband came home. She met him with an affectionate manner, which he returned. But there was a cloud on his brow that even her smile could not drive away. Even as she met him, words of confession were on the tongue of Mrs. Ellis, but she shrank from giving them utterance.
After tea she resolved to speak. But, when this set-time of acknowledgment came, she was as little prepared for the task as before.
Mr. Ellis looked so troubled, that she could not find it in her heart to add to the pressure on his mind an additional weight. And so the evening pa.s.sed, the secret of Mrs. Ellis remaining undivulged. And so, day after day went on.