Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-12-20

| | novelists sayL
 ! That night he was glum all supper | time, and afterwards buried himself in the day betore's newspaper till bedtime. When morning came, he fingered about ! after breakfast was over, with no os- tensible reason, at last made feint of starting, and then came back again.
 ''Oh, by the way" he said, with a fine air of carelessness, "I had to bor | row some money yesterday" | 'How much?" asked his better half, with little blush. | Five dollars
 "What for?" trembled on Mrs. Dela- l meters lips, but she did not say it. She ! simply handed him the exact sum. | II guess you'd better let me have a | little flor car fares while you're about | it"
 A ten-cent piece was carefully select ed and laid in his palm. MT. Delameter did not forget his straitened condition that day. He re- membered 1t, of course, when he sent the bill to his friend; he felt it when he passed a fruit stand on which were l displayed some particularly fine oranges; it was recalled to his atten- ton when the little lame boy with
 
 office; it was painfully present to his mind when 8 man with subscrip- | ton paper whereon figured the name of Delameter came to collect the money subscribed; and the lack was | keenly appreciated when he had to l forego buying his usual evening paper. The third day he braced up, and | with a reluctance he was wholly una l ble to conceal requested the means | wherewith to buy a pair of light trous- CTS.
 The fourth day was Sunday. MT. Delameter thought of the contribution box, and decided he wouldn't attend church. His head felt badly, he said.
 The fifth day the grocer called at the office for his pay, and MT. Delameter, mumbling something about pocket | book" and "other pants" sent him to the house.
 | The sixth day Mrs. Delameter, with unlooked-for generosity, gave him fifty cents when he asked for car fare, and | on the strength of this he hailed man with strawberries, on the way home at night, bought two boxes, and found he l was six cents short
 The seventh day MT. Delam eter real ized that the experiment was not work ing quite in the way he meant it should, so he pulled himself together and bold ly asked for ten-dollar bill.
 What for?" queried his wife, as though with an effort.
 'I-well, I want to get a pair of boots.'
 Mems boots come high, don't they2" faltered Mrs Delameter with an artificial smile, as she opened her pocketbook.
 "Oh, the boots won't be more than four dollars, proba bly,, but guess can make away with the rest"
 Mrs Delameter hesitated, blushed, bit her lip, then slowly handed out two two-dollar bills and a silver half dollar.
 'T guess that will do you, this time" :" she murmured, with downcast eyes. | MT. Delameter glared at her and made aS though he would cast the money from him. Then suddenly he seemed to recollect something and a brilliant red color famed up from the edge of his white shirt collar to the roots of his hair. He jammed the money viciou sly into his breast pocket, made use of some word indicative of extreme anger and flung himself out of the house, slamming the door with great vehemence behind him. Mrs. Delameter threw herself face downward on the lounge and cried and cried. The terrible fear that she had offended him beyond forgiveness and that he would never return to her as- sailed her at intervals all through the day.
 When MT. DeIameter did actually come home at the usual hour she hard ly dared raise her eyes to his face. But he was very quiet, did not slam things and hardly looked up from his food all tea time.
 When Mrs. Delamcter had cleared up the dishes, she slipped up behind her husband as he sat in the bay-window, with his elbows on his knees, his face between his hands, and his eyes on the carpet, and dropped the bone of con- tention, the pocketbook, into his lap. and fled.
 He caught her dress before she had fled very far, and drew her back Fannie" he said, with whimsical seriousness, do you believe there is money enough in this pocketbook to induce some muscular man to kick me all deserve to be kicked?"
 ''Oh, Tom!' sobbed Mrs. Delameter, ''can you ever forgive me? You don't know how hated to be so hateful!' "Oh, como now! Doy you pretend to say you didn't enjoy it?" "Of course didn'tI' was the indig- nant answer; and then MT. Delameter threw his head back, and laughed and laug he'd.
 Finally he sobered down. "Well,' he said, in very business-like way, now we'll have tris thing fixed up. . Have you any idea how much our house. . hold expenses are?" q II have kept account of that, and o1 . my personal expenses" said Mrs. Della meter, bringing him the book, but I , did not know how much you earned or
 how much your expenses were"
 MT. Delameter glanced at the neat Il columns, and turned over the leaves tc 7 look at the footing-up for the whole year. He seemed to be surprised at