"May be it is; but, for all that, I like good company too well to spend all my time with her."
"Isn"t she good company?"
"Oh, yes; but, then, variety is the very spice of life, you know."
"True enough. Well, we"ll not quarrel about the matter. Come! let"s go and take a drink; I"m as dry as a fish."
"I don"t care if I do," was the instinctive reply of Wilkinson, who took up his hat as he spoke.
The two men left the store, and were, a little while after, taking a lunch at a public house, and chatting over their brandy and water.
At the usual dinner hour, Wilkinson returned home. He did not fully understand the expression of his wife"s face, as she looked at him on his entrance: it was a look of anxious inquiry. She sat with Ella upon her lap: the child was sleeping.
"How is our little pet?" he asked, as he bent over, first kissing his wife, and then touching his lips lightly to the babe"s forehead.
"She"s been in a heavy sleep for most of the time since morning,"
replied Mrs. Wilkinson, turning her face aside, so that her husband could not see its changed expression.
Mr. Wilkinson"s habitual use of brandy had long been a source of trouble to his wife. In reviewing the painful incidents of the previous evening, a hope had sprung up in her heart that the effect would be to awaken his mind to a sense of his danger, cause him to reflect, and lead to a change of habit. Alas! how like a fairy frost-work fabric melted this hope away, as the strong breath of her husband fell upon her face. She turned away and sighed--sighed in her spirit, but not audibly; for, even in her pain and disappointment, active love prompted to concealment, lest the shadow that came over her should repel the one she so earnestly sought to win from his path of danger.
Ah, who can tell the effort it cost that true-hearted wife to call up the smile with which, scarcely a moment afterwards, she looked into her husband"s face!
"It is no worse, if no better," was her sustaining thought; and she leaned upon it, fragile reed as it was.
CHAPTER VII.
"COME home early, dear," said Mrs. Wilkinson, resting her hand upon her husband, and looking into his face with a loving smile. "The time seems so long when you are away!"
"Does it?" returned Wilkinson, and he kissed his wife. Yet, did not the tenderness of tone with which he spoke, nor the act of love which accompanied it, hide from the quick perception of Mary the fact that her husband"s thoughts were elsewhere.
"Oh, yes," she replied. "I count the hours when you are absent. You"ll be home early to tea?"
"Certainly I will. There now, let your heart be at rest."
And Wilkinson retired. This was after dinner, on the day that succeeded the opening of our story.
As in the morning, he found it the most natural thing in the world to call in at a certain drinking house and get his accustomed gla.s.s of brandy. As he entered the door of the bar-room, a man named Carlton stepped forward to meet him, with extended hand. He was an old acquaintance, with whom Wilkinson had often pa.s.sed an agreeable hour,--one of your bar-room loungers, known as good fellows, who, while they exhibit no apparent means of support, generally have money to spend, and plenty of time on their hands.
"Glad to see you, Wilkinson; "pon my soul! Where have you kept yourself for this month of Sundays?"
Such was the familiar greeting of Carlton.
"And it does one"s eyes good to look upon your pleasant face," returned Wilkinson, as he grasped the other"s hand. "Where have you kept yourself?"
"Oh, I"m always on hand," said Carlton, gayly. "It"s you who are shut up, and hid away from the pure air and bright sunshine in a gloomy store, delving like a mole in the dark. The fact is, old fellow! you are killing yourself. Turning gray, as I live!"
And he touched, with his fingers, the locks of Wilkinson, in which a few gray lines were visible.
"Bad! bad!" he went on, shaking his head. "And you are growing as thin as a lath. When did you ride out?"
"Oh, not for two months past. I"ve been too closely occupied with business."
"Business!" there was a slight air of contempt in Carlton"s voice and manner. "I hate to hear this everlasting cant, if I must so call it, about business; as if there were nothing else in the world to think or care about. Men bury themselves between four brick walls, and toil from morning until night, like prison-slaves; and if you talk to them about an hour"s recreation for body and mind, all you can get out of them is--"Business! business!" Pah! I"m out of all patience with it. Life was made for enjoyment as well as toil. But come, what"ll you drink?
I"ve preached to you until I"m as dry as a chip."
The two men stepped to the bar and drank. As they turned away, Carlton drew his arm within that of Wilkinson, saying, as he did so--
"As it is an age since I saw you, I must prolong the pleasure of this meeting. Your work is done for the day, of course."
"No, I can"t just say that it is."
"Well, I can then. If you"ve been immuring yourself, as you have on your own confession, for some two months, or more, an afternoon with good company is indispensable. So, consider this a holiday, and think no more of bags, boxes, cash-book, or ledger. I bought a splendid trotter yesterday, and am going to try his speed. You are a first-rate judge of horse-flesh, and I want your opinion. So, consider yourself engaged for a flying trip to Mount Airy."
"You are a tempter," said Wilkinson, laughing.
"Oh, no. A friend, who will give health to your veins, and life to your spirit."
"Let me see," said Wilkinson, now turning his thoughts upon his business--"if there isn"t something special that requires my attention.
Yes," he added, after thinking for a few moments--"a customer promised to be in after dinner. He is from the country, and bought a good bill last season. You will have to excuse me, Carlton. I"ll go with you to-morrow."
"Indeed, and I shall do no such thing," was promptly answered. "Let your customers call in the morning--always the best time for business.
Men don"t buy in the afternoon."
"My experience says differently."
"A fig for your experience! No, no, my good friend. You"re booked for a ride with me this very afternoon; so let your business and customers take care of themselves. Health is better than dollars; and length of days than great possessions. There"s wisdom in miniature for you.
Wouldn"t I make a capital preacher, ha?"
"But Carlton"--
"But me no buts, my hearty!" and Carlton slapped Wilkinson on the shoulder as he spoke, in a familiar manner. "You"re my prisoner for the rest of the day. Do you understand that?"
"You"ve bought a fast trotter, have you?" said Wilkinson, after a brief but hurried self-communion, the end of which was a determination to take the afternoon for pleasure, and let his customer call in the morning.
"I have; and the prettiest animal your eyes ever looked upon."
"Fleet as an arrow?"
"Ay; as the very wind. But you shall have a taste of his quality. So come along. Time pa.s.ses."
The two men left the tavern, and went to the stable where Carlton"s new horse was kept. The animal was soon in harness.
Four hours afterwards, the last rays of the setting sun came through the windows of a room, in which were seated, at a table, Carlton and Wilkinson. Liquor and gla.s.ses were on the table, and cards in the hands of the men. Wilkinson appeared excited, but Carlton was calm and self-possessed. The former had been drinking freely; but the latter exhibited not the smallest sign of inebriation. A single five-dollar bill lay beside Wilkinson; a dozen bills and two gold coins were beside the other. They were playing for the last stake. Nervously did Wilkinson lay card after card upon the table, while, with the most perfect coolness, his adversary played his hand, a certainty of winning apparent in every motion. And he did win.
"Curse my luck!" exclaimed Wilkinson, grinding his teeth together, as the last five-dollar bill he had with him pa.s.sed into the hands of his very particular friend.