The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-01-24

looked at my Margaret'spicture lcould
hope TO enjoy her now for another ten
years. 1T the end of that time / should
probably die for my enslavement 10
drugs which had eaten cruelty into my
physique. But those ten years!
The scheme itself worked beautifully.
l threw myself into il with the desper-
alton of love and carried it out success
fully. ! My position and influence with
the bank were strengthened greatly,
| tor / was instrumental in the detection
of a clerk who had stolen $1,000. All
over the country our syndicate ruth
lessly exposed defalcation.
"Glorious, my boy" said Mr.. Meldon,
when / saw him ut his bank n day and
made my deposit to him. Our clear
ing house is doing we'll, eh?"
He laughed in that peculiar, mirth-
less way of brilliant men. i have nj
ways noticed that brilliant men cannot
laugh naturally and he was indeed a
very brilliant man. The fact that
was much in his company and known TO
be IN a degree a familiar of his had
greatly increased my prestige in bank
Ing circles and caused me TO be ooked
upon as a rising young ~flnancier.
So the weeks ran on. BY this time /
had married and was living in the pref.
test little house in the suburbs. Even
now / canaot look back upon that time
without a feeling of wonder that i
should have been SC unhappy. For ]
was keenly, wildly unhappy. Never
have / heard of such pain as l felt every
time Margaret looked at me. Perhaps
] have given the impression that my
wife was a doll like innocent. and per-
haps l thought she was at first. But
soon 1 had reasons to change my esti.
mate Of her. Pure and good h could
not help but be. but there was a matur-
ity In her intellect and character that
made me perceive how futile all efforts
TO conceal myself from her must ulti-
mately be. And that was the chief
source of my sorrow.
When / reached home after my inter-
view with Mr.. Mellon, Margaret's face
told me plainly that some anxiety was
pressing her.
"May | talk a little business with you,
dear?' she began, in the touching, half
maternal way hat made her serious
ness as sweet TO me as her smile.
One of my breads was a dread OF con-
versation with my wife. AS long as
she talked / felt soothed, but long ago
I had found my own speech a pitfall.
was perpetually saying things that
rallied for explanation, and perpetually
explaining in the lamest way.
at is about money" she persisted.
do you know we are living far beyond
our meansV'
She looked at me in a playfully severe
way.
az was not aware of it," i replied,
guiltily. / thought of my 10000 in an
nual stealings and of my $4,000 of an
nual salary and averted my eyes from
very shame and fear.
"Of course / do not censure YOU"
Margaret went on. "You love me so
much hat you cannot feel happy II
luxury does not surround me. But
you m~isjudge me greatly if you think
I a feel happy, even in so pretty a
home as this, when / know you can
with difficulty afford it,"
/ tried to find some words in which to
put the idea that She was wrong in her
impression that we were living beyond
our means But / could not: l simply
could not.
"You only earn $4,000 a year." my
sweet tormentor went on again, sand
we are spending at the rate of five.n
Whereupon she looked at me very
seriously. We were really living ut the
rate Of $4,000 a year, did the poor girl
but know it. Our home was exquisite,
put / had to lie systematically about