Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1920-04-30
CHE TRAVELS
FASTEST"
By ELIZABETH Y. MILLER
(Copyright.)

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(Copyright.)
Arthur Brooks was an ambitious
young man. When he married Theo-
dora he took her to live in one of the
Jersey suburbs. The rent was low
and the neighborhood not too fastidl-
GUS For be 1t understood that Ar
thurs ambition ran not to luxurles,
but to the accumulation of wealth.
He was the type of man-the
thrifty, saving type-who keeps
couple of dime banks In constant use,
one on his desk at the office wherein
he dropped the ten-cent pieces which
rightfully belonged to the waiter who
served him at lunch, the other on his
chinonier at home. On the chiffonier
there was, too, large papier mache
orange for the devouring of stray
pennies.
Theodore, who was not "allow-
anced" In the orthodox, theoretical
way, conceived the idea that the dimes
and pennies which were dropped into
the home banks rightfully belonged
to her. And having discovered that a
slim-bladed penknife WIS a safe ally,
she filched from them sometimes so
much as whole dollar at once. Nat
urally enough the home savings did
not accumulate very fast.
But they had been married whole
year before Arthur Brooks detected
his young wife in her pilferings. The
lecture which he read her was mag
nifcent Of Its kind. In way, how
ever, the force of 1t rolled off Theo-
dora like water off a ducks back.
She was not thrifty by nature; she
needed money, and helping herself to
1t was by far an easier and surer way
Of getting 1t than begging it of
Arthur.
"And why" he continued, ponder
ously, Should you need any extra
money? Aren't you fed7 Haven't
you enough Of everything2"
Plenty" said Theodore placidly,
"of everything but money"
But what did you need money fort"
he persisted.
Theodore flushed. Then she threw
back her head defiantly.
"Since you must know" she burst
forth Indignantly, II stole from you In
order to buy baby clothesp
In this manner was Arthur Brooks
made cognizant of his impending
fatherhood.
The revelation came to him in the
nature of a distinct shock. He had
reckoned upon marriage, had fully
counted the cost of taking wife, but
he had left baby clothes and all that
pertains thereto out of his calcula-
lions.
Indeed, 1t had been part of his In
born thriftiness which tempted him in
the first place to get married. He had
heard many times how q wife helped
fellow to "get on" The wife, It
seemed, always scrlmped and saved,
baked, brewed, sewed, washed, and
ironed for her board and keep. Per-
haps in the interim, even, she took
In little dressmaking from the more
extravagant Of her neighbors.
That was the wife Of Arthur Brooks
bachelor dreams. Somehow the dream
was mixed up with disconcerting
reality. 1t was case of not looking
before he leaped; of loving, perhaps
not wisely, but too well.
Physically, Theodore was lovely
enough to tempt any man into mar
rlage. Possibly young Arthur lost his
head, and forgot to question her ante
cedents. For Theodora's upbringing
had been quite different from his. In
her fathers household dime banks and
papier-mache oranges were things
unknown. So was a bank account.
Her family had lived luxuriously
from hand to mouth, and there was
always huge pile Of bills waiting to
be paid. But this irritating fact I'm
no wise lessened the number of gowns
that Theodore and her mother bought,
nor forced the family to dine on corn
ed beef in preference to chicken.
There were theater trips In Theodora's
antenuptlal days, cabs, restaurant din
ners, and wildly extravagant times at
Christmas.
Theodora's welded life was quite
different. They lived well within her
husbands income-unnecessa so,
II sometimes seemed-and to her cred
II be 1t said, that she did her best to
take kindly to the new regime. In
deed, considering all that had gone
before, Theodore did remarkably well.
She loved her thrifty husband and, in
a way, she was happy.
Arthur, too, was happy in a way.
He would have been happier, perhaps,
II matrimony had been less expensive,
but saving was with him a constltu-
tIonal instinct, and his regrets did not
reflect measurably upon Theodore.
There we're times when his love for
her swept him like q tempest.
Her clear brown eyes; her hair,
satlny and smooth like the brown wing
of bird; her slender figure, moving
so lithely to household tasks; her
pretty white hands, which no amount
OF toll seemed to harden, we're all
powerful lodestOnes to draw him to
her.
And yet It could not be denied,
Theodore, with all her physical at
fractions, was q horrible expense.
There were times when Arthur Brooks
took to broodlng over what might
have been. If, for Instance, he hadn't
married. or had put off marrying until
q more Suitable" time. He figured
up how cheaply he might have lived.
II he hadn't married. Heavensi
How he could have saved
Even a cheap fiat, with u wife who