Year: 1876

the double sting of wounded pride, for
this silent partner in his great posses
sions to demand fraction of the patri-
mony which he had always considered
entirely his own, was but adding insult
to his injured dignity.


"They may go their way for all o.
mep' he said, decidedly. 81 wish the
puny, soft-headed popinjay all the joy
he'll find in his new possession"


Mrs. Rutherford saw that further en-
treaty and remonstrance were alike use
less. There was no law in all this land
of free men to compel any one of the
lawmakers to give to any bond-woman
''of the fruit of her hands," and thereby
fulfill the Scriptural injunction to 'let
her own works praise her in the gates" +"
so the mother of rash EDNA Rutherford
took up again her daily duties, crushed
back the longings of her soul, and hid
away her deep sorrow behind butter
firkins and wash-tubs, while her be-
reaved lord and master logged leisurely
over the neighboring highways behind
gentle roadster, and daily sought to
soothe his ruffled senses with the per-
fumes of an old-fashioned pipe.
John Smith had married Edna Ruth
erford under the implicit belief that her
parents would in very little while SO
far relent as to give them fine setting
up IN the world; but it took very few
days of welded waiting to convince him
that for once he had reckoned without
his host.


The honeymoon was spent at a fash
| ionable hotel in the same aristocratiC
town in which Edna had attended
school, and for a brief period, until
Johns very light exchequer was ex,
hausted, the couple were the admiration
of the inmates of the school, who envieC
Edna, and thenceforth laid many addi.
tiOnal snares wherewith to entrap un.
suspecting swains into the meshes O
promissory matrimOny.


The third week of conjugal bliss wa:
over, and John could not pay the accru
ing board bill. This was Edna's frs
great humiliation. She had learned
from her standpoint of inexperience t.
look upon marriage as the open road t.
plenty of spending money, though wha
reason she had for this expectation sht
could not have told. Certainly, if sht
had looked at home, she would have dis
covered the very opposite fact, but VIII,
ever knew a modern-educated girl o
eighteen endowed with a mOdicum o
practical business sense?


Edna pawned her wedding ring to pa!
the offending bill, laying many injunc
tions of secrecy upon the old man wh,
carried on a secondhand brokerage be
hind sign of three golden balls-in
functions which were industriously dis
obeyed as soon as redemption day cam
and brought no owner to reclaim tn
property.


John Smith was happy as the day
He had never learned to struggle for
livelihood, the moderate monthly al
lOwance from an estate of great expecta
tiOns having thus far sufficed for hi
own needs and luxuries, though la
mentally inadequate for the main
tenance of two. The possession of
wife as well connected as was Edn
Rutherford was glory enough for him
He could not see that she had any fuI
ther use for the wedding ring now tn
: marriage was consummated, and his in
difference to their financial want
aroused feeling of Indignation in Edna
that ere the honeymoon was over ha
settled into the barest liberation of hi
presence.


But something had to be done. Som
change must be made in their mode
E life, and what that change could be, {


would be, was an anxious problem t
, Edna, and after while became ma
ter of decided interest to John.
ITO be continued1