Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-26

Take them out, my dear. won't have you
mortify your pretty vanity by not being in
the fashion" 1t wasn't that, she knew in
her guilty little soul, but she hated to wear
her servant girls mock finery, and she
knew that every woman in the audience
would know the sham at glance. In her
desperation she had preferred that to the
encounter with her husbands wrath and
contemplate now-she hesitated. And
then came the tinkling of the car bell.
They ran hurriedly out of the door and
down the steps and were in the cars, and
there was Mrs Courcy de Spenser going to
the opera, too. Before Mrs. Trench knew
it those earrings, those hateful bits Of glass
and brass, had been snatched from her ears
and were slipping into the pocket Of her
black silk skirt, while a pair of great white
earrings, as big as peas, were flashing and
milking and rainbowing in Mrs. Courcy de
Speneers ears for Mr. Trench to see.
Apparently he didn't see them; nor had
he noticed that the bits of Alaska crystal
| were larger than her own earrings She
| was over the trouble for this time-but
what was she to do on the next! At last,
in the midst of the lights and dresses and
| flowers and music, she forgot her sorrows
and abandoned herself to the general glory
and ineffable pleasure of the opera
Mr.. Trench was very quiet all through
the opera and on the way home he APP
peared to be in deep thought Two or
three times he looked at his wife with
that puzzled air; but he was very tender
and gentle with her. for him, like one
who would invite confidence, in the few
moments that they sat in the little draw
ing-room before going up stairs; and the
next morning as he went to business he
kissed her and asked her if she were sure
she loved him and nobody else, in spite of
his tempers. why, who else should l
love?' laughed Mrs. Trench, needless of
grammar. q | don't know another man in
the world to speak freely with, except
your brothers and my sisters husbands :;
and Pm sure | don't love them"
Then will you tell me whyyou wanted
to give them Christmas presents to the
extent of getting angry with your husband
about it ~
Because l always have, and they
always have and l like things to 90 on
the way they've been going on, and | don't
want to mar the harmony and put an end
to our old pleasant ways; and they'll give
us something they always haye), and
they always have come over here, every
one of them, 10 breakfast on Christmas
mornings, and | don't want them to think
we're mean, and"
"Well," said Mr.. Trench, "why didn't
you say so, instead of blowing me up the
other day? Now, l can't help you.
drew my salary ahead till the close of the
year to make the last payment on the
house, you know | had a particular use
for hundred dollars, and | borrowed it,
and Pve spent it, and | don't know where
to borrow any more, and if | did | doubt
if it would be right to borrow money and
run in debt for Christmas presents-do YOU
think it would be"
"N-no," said Mrs. Trench tearfullv.
And then he kissed her again and said,
sacrificing his last scrap of principle (:
Well have to explain it to them and
make it right next year" But as he went
up the street there was a hesitation in his
gait and manner which showed his mind
! to be very much divided about something.
Mrs. Trench saw it as she looked after
him according to her usual fashion when
she was not injured or angered; and she
found herself asking if she supposed he
really had not hundred dollars he could
have handed her at that moment, if there
We're not some other plans in his head for
using 1t that he found it hard to give up.
But it was idle to speculate and she went
up to overhaul her boxes and drawers,
making by the close of the day contented
arrangement of her possibilities " A per-
feet rag-bag of Christmas" she said,
but guess it will do, considering they
know Harry is paying for the house.
There's my lace shawl hate them, and
Harry's mother loves them, and Tll give
that to her. And there's the silk rem
nants; they will make John two neckties
beauties; and sister Sally can have my
French blonde fichu, it's fresh as snow.
There's three. And I'll give Maggie my
black Spanish lace scarf declare /
shan't have anything left And Law
rence-well, there's my silk socks l knit
for Harry's birthday. 1 haven't given them
to him yet-Lawrence can have them. And
Janet know Janet would like crazy
quilt. | wonder if 1 could get it done? l
don't care; Pll try. Now there's only
little Janet-Pll make her a rag doll
and Lolly and Will-let me see. There's
that embroidery on my old satin hounce
| suppose it would make good smoking
caps against the time they're grown up,
lined with those blue silk handkerchefs.
| But then there's the servants-well |
shall have to make my blue Shetland
shawl do, and Il prayer-booE, and Harry
just must spudge up little money besides
for themw And that reminded her of
Josephine's earrings, and she went to the
wardrobe-case where hung the dress she
had Worn on the previous evening, and
put her hand in the pocket for the ear
rings, and there were no earrings there.
Josephine had taken them back, of course.
And yet, Josephine would not do such a
thing. She turned the pocket inside out,
she searched the floor beneath the room,
the stairs, the drawing-room, the street
and wished she had done so in the first
place. For Josephine did not value them
at all and, giving the girl the last whole
dollar she owned to buy some others, Mrs.
Trench sat down at her crazy quilt, pre-
pared to forget all about it as soon as she
had said, Dear me, it seems as if there
were an evil fate about diamond earrings
and me p
Mrs. Trench, in the following DAYS, was
almost too busy to think. In the first of
them she was haunted by an underlined
fear of her husbands again asking for the
jewels; and she resolved that the first
money she had she would buy as good i'm
itations as were to be found and then she
thought how much vexation and unhappi-
ness she might have saved herself if she
had but confded in her husband in the
first place, and then she grew angry,
thinking what sort of husband was that
in whom you couldn't confde for fear of
an outburst that set your heart beating
and your nerves trembling to the point
you couldn't bear. And then she won
dered whether Janet would like robins
egg blue with crimson better than pale
sulphur; and then she set the quiet
Josephine at work on the crazy squares.
while she herself attended to the smoking
caps And up early, and in bed late, and
snatching her meals, Mr.. Trench declared
that he had double reason now for dislik-
ing holiday, preparation for which so
entirely absorbed his wife away from him.
! But Mrs. Trench was far from happy in
those days-dark days they were to her.
She was busy, busy with sort of breath
less haste, and yet only as if going through