The Washington herald., 1915-02-07

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Look herep said Mr.. Coombes,
driven at last to revolt, standing up
and raising his voice. 81 tell you 1
won't have that" The frock- coat
heaved with his indignation.
mo Whence, now," said the long
young man in drab, sitting up.
who the juice are you?" said Mr..
Coombes, hercely.
10 Whereupon they all began talking
at once The new guest said he was
Jennie's intended" and meant to pro-
tect her, and Mr.. Coombes said he
was welcome to do so anywhere but
in his (Mr. CoombesO house; and
Mrs. Coombes said he ought to be
ashamed of insulting his guests, and
(as l have already mentioned) that
he was getting a regular little grub;
and the end was, that Mr. Coombes
ordered his visitors out of the house,
and they wouldn't go, and so he said
he would go himself.
With his face burning and tears of
excitement in his eyes, he went into
the passage, and as he struggled with
his overcoat-his frock coat sleeves
got concertinaed up his ARMAND
gave a brush at his silk hat, Jennie
began again at the piano, and strum-
med him insultingly out of the house.
Tum, tum, tum. He slammed the shop
door 70 that the house quivered.
That, briefly, was the immediate max
ing of his mood. You will perhaps be-
gin to understand his disgust with ex-
istence.
AS he walked along the muddy path
under the first was late October.
and the bitches and heaps of fir
needles wore gorgeous with clumps of
fungi-he recapitulated the melan-
choly history of his marriage 1t was
brief and commonplace enough. He
now perceived with sufficient clear
ness that his wife had married him
out of natural curiosity and in or
der 10 escape from her worrying, la
borious, and uncertain life in the
workroom; and, like the majority Of
her class, she was far too stupid to
realize that it was her duty to CO.
operate with him in his business. She
was greedy of enjoyment, loquacious,
and socially minded, and evidently
disappointed to find the restraints OF
poverty still hanging about her. His
worries exasperated her, and the
slightest attempt to control her pro-
ceedings resulted in a charge of
"grumbling" Why couldn't he be nice
as he used to be? And Coombes was
such a harmless little man, too, nour,
ished mentally on "Self-Help," and
with a meager ambition of self-denial
and competition, that was to end in
a "suficiency."
Then Jennie came in as a female
McphistopheleS, a gabbling chronicle
of "fellers," and was always wanting
his wife to go to theaters, and "all
that" And in addition were aunts
OF his wife, and cousins (nale and
female), to eat up capital, insult him
personally, upset business arrange
mentS, annoy good customers, and
generally blight his life. 1t was not
the first occasion by many that Mr.
Coombes had fed his home in wrath
and indignation, and something like
fear, vowing furiously and even aloud
that he wouldn't stand it, and so
frothing away his energy along the
line of least resistance.
But never before had he been quite
so sick of life as on this particular
Sunday afternoon. The Sunday din
ner may have had its share in his de-
spair-and the grayness of the sky.
Perhaps, too, he was beginning to
realize his uncomfortable Illustration as
a business man as the consequence OF
his marriage. Presently bankruptcy,
and after that Perhaps she might
have reason to repent when it was too
late. And destiny, as | have already
intimated, had planted the path
through the wood with evil-smelling
fungi, thickly and variouSly planted
it, not only on the right side, but on
the left
A small shopman is in such mel
ancholy position, if his wife turns
out a disloyal partner. His capital
is all tied up in his business, and to
leave her, means to join the unem-
ployed in some strange part of the
earth. The luxuries of divorce arc
beyond him altogether. So that the
good old tradition of marriage for
better or worse holds inexorably Tor
him, and things work up to tragic
culnlinations. Bricklayers kick their
wives to death, and dukes betray
theirs; but it is among the small
clerks and shopkeepers nowadays
that it comes most often to a cutting
of throats.
Under the circumstances IT is not
so very remaI 5able-and you must
take it as charitably as you can-that
the mind of Mr.. Coombcs ran for
awhile on some such glorious close
to his disappointed hopes, and that
he thought of razors, pistols, bread
knives, and touching letters to the
coroner dcnouncing his enemies by
name, and praying piously for for
giveness. After a time his flerceness
gave way to melancholia. He had
been married in this very overcoat,
in his first and only frock coat that
was buttoned up beneath it. He be-
gan to recall their courting along this
very walk, his years of penurious saw
ing to get capital, and the bright
hopefulness of his marrying days.
For ~ al to Hvork out like this Was