Connecticut western news., 1872-08-30
JOHN RANDALL'S WIFE.

twill you Ter lae have it, John?" "No. Georey, can't" John Randall uttered bis refusal of his wife's request very decidedly, as if he felt the request was unreasonable; and yet there was an undercuIrent of grioved im- patience Tn his voice, and a look Cf pel- plexity and self dissatisfaction in hls eyes. Ile wanted to see bis wife rise iron the breakfast table, and thereby signify her acquiescel ce in his decision, before he went of for hls morning walk to the mill.
 Georgy, however, did not rise. Her looks di not express acquiescence. She was pretty woman-very pretty ia l., slight, very fair, with large, clear, steady eyes and protuse brown halr. Besides her beauty, she had an air of dellcate, graceful composure rather peculiar, aud voice that suggested alto flute notes. all this she was simply tho wife of a master machin,st in the great Haliburro on Print Works ot Miilville, and mistress of one Of the small. white factory ten. ments, whose long, orderly rows constituted Mlllville proper
 But Georgie di! not belong to the fac tory element, although she had married into it. She had been brought up by a relative, upon whom she had been left de- pendent, and whom she called Aunt Ap- pleton.
 Aunt Appleton lived at the other end of Appleton-the west end-among tbe Hali. burtons, the Dilloways, and the Verses.
 Perhaps. under the circumstances Georgy might have looked little higher than John Randall. But then John was as good as gold-streng, steady, manly, true.
 Aunt Appleton had the sense to rejoice at the reception Of her pretty protege, and the generosity to give her liberal outfit her furniture, complete wardrobe, a nice wedding.
 It had been very agreeable to Gcorgy to have these things. She was fastldious to the core. She enjoyed advantages of posi-. tion her good clothes, her prestige among the other wives of the other officials in the print works. She was fastiGious-perhaps little to fastidious for her place.
 John Randall had reached his last but ton-a somewhat shiny button on a some what shiny coat He had neither time nor pretext tor lingering. At thls last mo- ment bis wife raised her eyes, clearly, un- 1inchingly, to his face.
 "Why not ?" she asked, in her own sweet voice
 It is never pleasant for man to be call cd to an account-about money(and of course it was money, and money only Georey wanted) by woman. and that woman his wife. John's lace flushed a little; Lot retort pricked the very tip of his tongue, but he did not utter 1t. He was very patient man, naturally and then he had that deep, pure love for his pretty wife which overleaches all slight shocks:
 ''I have exceeded my salary every month siEce we were married, Georgv," he said. '' The first of January will be here in few weeks, and 1 shall not be able to meet all my bills that are due. I don't feel that we ought to trife away a penny of money I don't believe you do, either"
 Fl shall say no more about it," she re- turned. "I ought to wear a new pair of gloves to call on Paul's bride, but if you them"
 John Randall's brain was fine enough to understand that this was not the acuuies- cence he wanted. He would like to ID. dulge her, but there was the fact that, if he begun it, he should be always behind, hand, always poor.
 Ihls was his fact. Georpy had hers, also that she was always to be denied and disappointed. She didn't mind so much wearing the old gloves on th.s occasion that winch troubled her, which was wedg ing itself painfully into her convictions, was that she W uld have to 2 ve up all the little luxuries and elegancles that she SO craved; that her future was to be plain matter st-fact routine, deprived of those gratifi- cations in whose absence she felt sort of moral starvation
 "It don't seem as if you ought to be disappointed, Georgy." said the husband, finally. You know just what my salary is, and just how far it will go. We used to talk abont saving something every , car, So that might better myself one of these days. ] don't like to deny you" "Never mlnd," she said, rising.
 She was one of those women who say too little rather than to much. John went off to bis work. Bridget the girl-of-all-work, came in to clear the table. Georgy dusted the parlor, and made the pudding, fed the canary, and then placed the sewing machine in the window, facing the dull, leaden light Of the November day, and sat down to stitch wristbands. She had been married more than a year, and was making her first shirt for John. She WAS very thoughtlul,-a dogged pain on hnr taAa o11 %ho tshiln