Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1863-10-06
A BANKRUPT HUSBAND.
By VIRGINIA f. TOWNSEND.

It'll have to 60, Mary; there's no help
for it.
She looked up-ihe lady to whom these
words were ad1ressed-in a way which
showed that they had struck and hurt her
She was scollOping child's shirt, and the
needle work had followed her rapid fingers
| along the canned like q line of snowy
foam but now the work fell, UNDECIDED, to
the floor.
| An. John. has it come to that? asked
Mary, the wife of John Malcolm and the
! sOtt bloom IN her cheeks vanished awaY.
and the words were s2Oked with q kind of
gasp as though just beneath them Law a
| Tigtty swell and rush Of feelings that we'll
nIgh uverpOwered her voice.
e., Mary It must come CID knows
I've struggled rs hard as man could 10
weather the storm, aud could have dOne
1t TOO, II those Western houses hadn't gone
under. But they'll carry us with it,
can't real re 1t yet, JOHN she said
looking at hIm in half-bewiIdered. half
frightened way, that was piCiiul to see: the
shock, tor the moment, had halfstuaned
her.
U, Mary. it was hardest for your sske!'
and the words came il that sharp eroan
which is terrible to hear from the lips of a
strong man. The tones reused her at once
INTO tull consciousness of what had befsl
len them, and Of the part she must bear 10
it.
Don't, JOhn-cOn't take it so bard her
voice struggling up through sob into a
note Ot brave cheerfulness, aud her Iips
tashIODing a smile which though weak at
| first. you felt certain would grow stronger
all the time, just as you feel the sweet
| promise OF the day when the first faint sun
beams struggle weakly out of the murning' &
mist
/ c"uId have borne up, Mary, if it had
not been for you and the children; but
that thought cuts to the core-it's more
than l can BEAR
And for the first time the Young wife
and mother heard sob froul the lips OF
her husband, as bowed down on the aru, of
his chair. The pride Of bis manhood gave
way at last, and John MalcOm went like a
little child. Then the woman's heart the
! woman's power to cheer, and comfort and
strengthen. reused themselves; the waves
went over her but one moment, and then
Mary Malcolm forgot herself, and ruee up
to the height OF her true wOmanhOvd-tu
Tue eAdiidtiOD OF eeIl6acrlhCP,
john said the soft, brave voice, d MT
ever say that again. Let everything Else
tail, the heart of your wife never will
! And now she had come close to him. and
be Eel: her small arms about his neck. and
her head lay Oh his shoulder, as tender. as
conhdlng as in their days Of brightest pros
perity All through the day he had been
looking forward to this hour, and shrinking
away from 1t; and once Lr twice nd
forgive him he had glanced out of his
Ghlce window to the river, which rolled it's
oark, sullen waters in the distance, and a
6eree temptation had rushed over him to
drop everything and hurry out there and
bury all Ills rain and anguish under the
darf, crumpled sheet of water. But John.
10 MS secret distress. knew that this temp
tatlon was the voice of the devil entering
into bis soul; he was q man who feared
GOd and kept his cOmmandments-be nut
the temptation aside.
The young husband had not doubted his
WHO'S heart for moment, but he exDected
70 see her almost stricken to the earth with
the first tidings of the ruin of the hOuse in
which he was the heaviest partner. He
knew that her youth had been nurtured in
ell the grace and luxury that wealth con-
ters, and he feared the thought Of going
out into tho chill and darkness of poverty
| He had not looked for loud lamentatiors or
bitter reprOaches, but be dreaded the silent
tears, and the mute despair of the white
face.
30 John Malcolm Iaised bis hot face.
stained with the tears that were shed for
her sake, and looked into the ewes of his
whe; and she answered him with smile
mat set even her face in a new sa2redness
ana beauty TO her husband's eye-a smile
so sweet and tender to hun, so brave and
denant Tor the worst the world could do for
them, that 1t said to him at Cnee all that
her words would and could not.
'Ah, Mary, my wife, said the merchant,
i thought when came into nv home. an
hour ago, that l was q ruiz cd man 7
one.' nv"
'Ruined, with me aud the children. JobpP'
and now there was some faint reproach in
Der voice; but she chung closer to him
But, Mary-poor child, you don't know
what it is TO be poor, to give nm so mnch NJ
grace and luxury, to which you have been
accustomed
You say thst, John, before you We tried
me and seen what springs Of courace and
ture' "'O =" ny VA
The noble words had fitting of emnba.
ers IN the sweet smiIe-in the st,a5f"",
dauntless tones. e''0ui"o''
But We shall have to give IN the bou,e
Mary ~ '"e n0use'
Well We can feel just as hauu7 in
smaller one. Our love has had broader
foundation than stately rooms and cos,Ia
furniture. Well take cOzy little COTTAGE
somewhere in the country, and for ,bres
servants get along With ene.'
Hearing these words, John Malcolm
looked at his wife but be did not say then
what was in bis heart-a thanksgiving to
Gud for the angel he had sent TO walk with
him. He took her hand and held it close
in bis, while he told her Of 8 temptation