"
"But some of your friends, Arthur, might lend you the money you want."
"My dear Edith, do you fancy that within the past month I have failed
to go over the list of my friends, backward and forward? Don't say
those tiresome, obvious things. I'll fail and have an auction, and give
up the house, and lose caste, and have a pleasant tea-party generally.
That's the only thing there is to do."
Edith rose from her seat, and went around to where he was sitting.
Standing behind his chair she laid her hands on his shoulders, and,
bending forward, kissed his cheek.
"I dare say, Arthur," she said, "that we should be quite as happy if we
gave up trying to live in a way that we can't afford; but meanwhile
there is godmamma."
"Mrs. Glendower?"
"Yes. You know she has left me five thousand dollars in her will; and
she told me once that if the time came that I needed the money
desperately I should have it for the asking."
"That is kind of her," was her husband's comment, "but it would be
kinder to let you get it at once in the natural way. The comfort about
a bequest is that you don't have to feel grateful to any live man for
it."
His words were brutal enough, but there was a new lightness in his
tone. He caught instantly at this hope of relief, and he showed his
appreciation of his wife's cleverness in devising this scheme by
caressing the hand which lay upon his shoulder.
Pages:
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356