No one is the
worse for it, and many a one the better. Even the tradespeople will be a
trifle the better. I shall be quite proud to know that I have a
pawn-ticket in my pocket to fall back upon. Oh, there's that old silk
dress your mother sent me--I do believe that would bring more. It is in
good condition, and looks quite respectable. If Eve had got into a
scrape like ours, she would have been helpless, poor thing, not having
anything _to put away_--that is the right word, I believe. There is
really nothing disgraceful about it. Come now, dear, and eat your
eggs--I'm afraid you must do without butter. I always preferred a piece
of dry bread with an egg--you get the true taste of the egg so much
better. One day or another we must part with everything. It is sure to
come. Sooner or later, what does that matter? 'The readiness is all,' as
Hamlet says. Death, or the pawnshop, signifies nothing. 'Since no man
has aught of what he leaves, what is it to leave betimes?' We do but
forestall the grave for one brief hour with the pawnshop."
"You deserve to have married Epictetus, Annie, you brave woman, instead
of Xantippe!"
"I prefer you, Hector."
"But what might you have said if he had asked you, and you had heard me
bemoaning the pawnshop?"
"Ah, then, indeed! But, in the meantime, we will go to bed and wait
there for to-morrow. Is it not a lovely thing to know that God is
thinking about you? He will bring us to _our desired haven,_
Hector, dearest!"
So in their sadness they laid them down.
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