The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-03-19
A FAIR F1NANCrER.

They had finished dinner "a cosy
tete-a-tete dinner, elegantly served
up on round table, and choiceiy
| cooked. u
The butler and his subordinate had
withdrawn, after placing a smart red
dispatch box, which throughout the
meal had occupied prominent posi-
tion on the sideboard, upon the shin
ing cloth before the master of the
| house.
He, merely nodding, looked over at
his wife, who without word drew a
little gold key from the collet of a
rather massive seal ring and handed
it silently across the table.
"You are very obliging," she said,
with cold little smile upon her beau
tifully cut lips, and most provoking
glitter in the eyes, most self-deny-
ing to consent, so much against the
grain, to overhaul the results of my
year of financial labor. Sheaves I
have reaped at the stock exchange
her eyelashes played at humility
"are gathered in that dispatch box, to
grain of corn"
"Of course can t refuse, since you
are so keen upon my going through
the scrip and so forth. \ x x X But
you were always an excellent woman
of business have had Coatleigh
Knolles to advise you--a man who
absolutely leads the financial field
and I have no doubt your original /
500, 900 have multiplied into a mil
lion. But perhaps that is why you
want me to go through the contents
of the dispatch box. You were rich
when I married you year ago-you
are fabulously wealthy now. Accept
my congratulations"
She had thrown off her mask of in
difference now, and the simmer in
the eyes that met his own was like
the play of moonlight on the blades
of spears.
"You have not forgotten you
never will forget-that, unlucky, alb
ominable, idiotic speech of mine,
made month after our marriage, in
the heat of our first quarrel. / have
eaten these words hundred times
but you do not really, and, thanks to
your Scotch blood, you never will.
They rankle in you now"
He bit his cigarette through in the
sudden closing of his strong square
teeth, and threw it aside with a hand
that shook little.
"No. You're right, he ackno .
edged, after moments pause. '
were having a quarrel, the first
word scrap we had ever had Nei
er of us was in earnest at the beg
ming; the thing developed as we W
on. And you told me I had MARI
you for your money.
"The accusation wasn't likely
hold water, even with my enemie
with my friends, for 1 happen to
what is generally called a rich man.
But you had said it-and, as you say
Il don't forget. I can't Nothing
has been the same since-nothing will
ever bring back"-he drew harsh
BREATH what used to be.
"The day after our quarrel I took
measures-we won't detail them,'
the man went on, Ito insure your
having command of your money-in
fact, of every stick, rag or bone be-
longing to you-command more abso-
lutte, if possible, that even the mar
ried women's property act ensures.
I absolutely prohibited you from
| spending any of it upon the house
hold. 1 required of you an under
taking that if we should have children,
you would not settle any portion of
your money upon the boys, but re-
serve such manifestations of your
generosity for the girls there were
any"
His wife burst out laughing wildly.
Hysterical sobs gathered in her throat,
and broke from her lips, her eyes
moistened the filmy handkerchief she
pressed against them.
"I asked you to do what you chose
with your money-short of spending
it upon my household. You had got
into a gambling set, the Ardleighs,
Lady Cecil Wilbram, and Coatleigh.
Knolles-you took the stock ex-
change fever, and you used the three
brougham horses in your to-and-fro-
ings between Chesterfield gardens and
the city. I'm not grumbling-you
were welcome to the horses. Now,
you have a motor-coupe, for which
you paid yourself. 1 am not gruni-
bling at that-you don't expect me
| to use it. But this containing
the fruits of your year. S fnance-you
have made me promise to go through
it-and 1 hated the idea."
| He unlocked the box with shad-
ow on his forehead and about his lips.
The upper tray of the smart red re-
ceptacle was full of bundles of cou-
pons, bulky sheaves of shares in va
rious companies, cracking securities
gayly stamped and smartly engrossed,
mining scrip and foreign rails.
The first bundle he opened caused
him to whistle faint, long-drawn
whistle of sheer dismay, that sent her
rebellious eyes dancing under their
concealing valance of lashes.
Jumping Cats Good heavens
Do you mean to say that Coatleigh
Knolles or Lady Cecil advised you to
throw away your money in IA rank
| Suiudla 1ike those mines 2D
"To do them justice" said his
wife, suavely, they endeavored to
dissuade me from the speculation.
Why are you laughingF
His sense of humor stirred at last
her husband was shaking with
amusement over a fresh bundle o.