The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-02-28

enangei ana grew qucrulous. "Mny
wouldn't Dicky have his wife and the
baby out? Surely he had salary-a fine
salary-and it was too bad of him to enjoy
| himself in India. But would ho-could
he-make the next draft little more
| elastic?' Here followed a list of baby :
kit as long rs a Parsee's bill. Then
Dicky, whose heart yearned TO his wife and
the little son he had never seen-which,
again, is feeling no boy is entitled to
enlarged the draft and wrote queer half
boy, half man letters, saying that life was
not so enjoyable after all, and would the
little wife wait yet q little lohgcr2 Bat
the little wife, however much she approved
of money, objected to waiting, and there
was a strange hard sort of ring in her let
tiers that Dicky didn't understand. How
could he, poor boy?
Later on still-just as Dicky had been
t0ld-apropos of another youngster who
had made a fool of himself as the say
ing is-that matrimony would not only
ruin his further chances of advancement,
but would lose him his present appoint
ment-came the news that the baby, his
own little, little son, had died, and Behind
this 40 lines of an angry woman's scrawl,
saying the death might have been averUed
IL tbTldlu GuIHSS, all GOStlIS money, Iltil
been done, or if the mother and tho baby
had been with Dioky. The letter struck
at Dicky's naked heart, but not being Off
cially entitled to Il baby he could show no
sign of trouble.
How Dicky won through the next four
months, and what hope he kept alight to
force him into his work, no one dare say.
He pounded on, the 700 rupee passage as
for +,rIn OpI
unchanged, except when he launched into
a new filter. There was the strain of his
office work, and the strain of his remit
tances, and the knowledge of his boys
death, which touched the boy more, per
haps, than it would have touched a man,
and, beyond all, the enduring strain of
his daily life. Gray headed seniors who
approved of his thrift and his fashion of
denying himself everything pleasant re-
minded him of the old saw that says:
If youth be distinguished in his art, art, art,
He must keep the girls away from his heart,
heart heart.
And Dicky, who fancied he had been
through every trouble that man is per-
mitted to know, had to laugh and agree,
with the last line of his balanced handbook
jingling in his head day and night
But he had one more sorrow to digest
before the end There arrived IL letter
from the little wifc-the natural sequence
of the others if Dicky had only known it
and the burden of that letter was ''gOne
with handSOmer man than you" 1t
was a rather curious production without
stops, something like this: She was not
going to wait forever and the baby was
dead and Dic!ly was only a boy and he
would never set eyes on her again and
why hadn't he waved his handkerchief to
her when he left Gravesend and God WIS
her judge she was a wicked woman but
Dioky was worse enjoying himself in India
and this other man loved the ground sho
trod on and would Dicky over forgive her
for she would never forgive Dicky; and
there was no address to write to-
Instead of thanking his stars that he
was free, Dicky discovered exactly how an
injured husband fcels-again, not at all
the knowledge to which "a boy is entitled
for his mind went back to his wife a.
he remembered her in the 80 shilling
"suit" in Montpelier square, when the
dawn of his last morning in England was
breaking, and she was crying in the bed,
whereat he rolled about on his bed and
bit his fingers. He never stopped to think
whether, if he had met Mrs. HAITI after
those two years, he would have discovered
that he ana She had grown quite different
and new persons. This he ought to have
done. He spent the night after the Eng
fish mail came in rather severe pain.
Next morning picky HAITI felt disin-
clincd to work. He argued that he had
missed tie pleasure of youth. He was
tired, ana he had tasted all the sorrow i'll
life before three and twenty. His honor
was gone-that was the maitland now he,
too, would 90 to the deyil-rhat was the
boy IN him so no put his head down on
tho green oilcloth table cuVer and wept
before rcsigning his post and al it offered.
But the reward of his services came.
He was given three days to reconsider
himself, and he head Of the establishment,
after some tet"graphings, said that it was
IL most unuS;.l s.ru, but in view of the
ability char Mr.. Hu,r had displayed ut
such and such q time, at such and such
iunctures, he was in position 10 offer
him an infinitely superior post, Grsg ON
probation, and later, il the natural course
of things, on confirmation. nd how
much does the post carry" said Dicily.
six hundred and fifty rupees" said the
head slowly, expecting to see the young
man SIM. with gcati;u.ia ana joy.
And it came then! The 200 rupee pas
sage, and cllongh 20 have s.ycd the wife
and the little som and to have allowed of
;ls'Ur"d ana ur;n marriage, came then.
Dirky burst Into u ro"r Of laughter
laughter he could Eos chcck-nasty, jan
Cling mr"rimcng ,h;!t seem. d rs if it would
20 or forever. Whom hc had recovered
himself, he said qtiJn seriously: TIA tired
OF work. I'm an old man now. It's
.IhluT fip,p I p,.rf Nyr-I I will
The boys mad" said the mead.
l think he was right. but Dicky HAITI
never reappcarud to settle the question: