TO Ellis the trials of the next two weeks were of the severest
character. Yet, he kept himself away from drinking-houses, and
struggled manfully to retain his feet under him. In this he was only
sustained by the kindness of his wife's manner, and the interest she
seemed to feel in him. Had she acted towards him with her usual want of
affectionate consideration, he would have fallen under the heavy
burdens that rested upon him. Scarcely a day passed in which he was not
visited by Carlton's agent, and fretted almost past endurance by his
importunities. But he steadily refused to take up any of the due-bills;
at the same time that he promised to cancel them at some future period.
This did not, of course, suit the gambler, who sent threats of an
immediate resort to legal proceedings.
Of all this Cara knew nothing; yet she could not help seeing that her
husband was troubled, and this caused her to muse on what she had done
with increasing uneasiness. She no longer took any pleasure in the
thoughts of new parlour carpets. But it was too late, now, to retrace
her steps of error. The carpets were already in the hands of the
upholsterers, and a few days would see them on the floor.
"I must tell him about them," said Cara to herself, about a week after
her act of folly, as she sat, towards the close of day, brooding over
what she had done. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed. In a few days
the carpets will be sent home, and then"--
A slight inward shudder was felt by Cara, as she paused, with the
sentence unfinished.
"But I'm foolish," she added, recovering herself, "very foolish. Why
need I be so afraid of Henry? I have some freedom of action left--some
right of choice. These were not all yielded in our marriage. His will
was not made the imperative law of all my actions. No--no. And here
lies the ground of difference between us. The fact is, he is to blame
for this very thing, for he drove me to it."
But such thoughts did not satisfy the mind of Mrs. Ellis, nor remove
the sense of wrong that oppressed her spirit. So, in a little while,
she came back to her resolution to tell her husband, on that very
evening, all about what she had done. This was her state of mind, when
her friend Mrs. Claxton called in. After the first pleasant greeting,
the lady, assuming a slight gravity of manner, said--
"Do you know, Mrs. Ellis, that I've thought a good deal about the
matter we talked of the last time I saw you?"
"To what do you allude?" asked Cara.
"To running up bills without your husband's knowledge. All men are not
alike, and Mr. Ellis might not take it so easily as Mr. Claxton has
done. The fact is, I have been checked off a little, so to speak,
within a day or two, and it has rather set me to thinking"
"In what way?" inquired Mrs. Ellis.
"I will tell you--but, remember, this is in the strictest confidence.
It might injure my husband's business if it got out. In fact, I don't
think I have any right to tell you; but, as I advised you to follow my
example, I must give you convincing proof that this example is a bad
one. Last evening, when Mr. Claxton came home, he looked unusually
serious. 'Is any thing wrong?' I asked of him, manifesting in my voice
and manner the concern I really felt. 'Yes,' said he, looking me
fixedly in the eyes--'there is something wrong. I came within an ace of
being protested to-day.' 'Indeed! How?' I exclaimed. 'Listen,' said he,
'and you shall hear; and while you hear, believe, for I solemnly
declare that every word I utter is the truth, and nothing but the
truth. I could not spare the cash when your new carpet and upholstery
bill came in, so I gave a note for the amount, which was over two
hundred dollars. The note was for six months, and fell due to-day. I
also gave a note for your new sofa, chairs, and French bedstead,
because I had no cash with which to pay the bill. It was two hundred
and fifty dollars, and the note given at four months. That also fell
due to-day. Now, apart from these, I had more than my hands full to
take up business paper, this being an unusually heavy day. At every
point where I could do so I borrowed; but at half-past two o'clock I
was still short the amount of these two notes. While in the utmost
doubt and perplexity as to what I should do in my difficulty, two notes
were handed in. One contained a dry goods bill which you had run up of
over a hundred and fifty dollars, and the other a shoe bill of
twenty-five. I cannot describe to you the paralyzing sense of
discouragement that instantly came over me. It is hopeless for me to
struggle on at such a disadvantage, said I to myself--utterly hopeless.
And I determined to give up the struggle--to let my notes lie over, and
thus end the unequal strife in which I was engaged; for, to this, I saw
it must come at last. Full twenty minutes went by, and I still sat in
this state of irresolution. Then, as a vivid perception of consequences
came to my mind, I aroused myself to make a last, desperate effort.
Hurriedly drawing a note at thirty days for five hundred dollars, I
took it to a money-lender, whom I knew I could tempt by the offer of a
large discount. He gave me for it a check on the bank in which my notes
were deposited, for four hundred and fifty dollars. Just as the clock
was striking three, I entered the banking-house.'
"My husband paused. I saw by the workings of his face and by the large
beads of perspiration which stood upon his forehead, that he was indeed
in earnest. I never was so startled by any thing in my life. It seemed
for a time as if it were only a dream. I need not say how sincerely I
repented of what I had done, nor how I earnestly promised my husband
never again to contract a debt of even a dollar without his knowledge.
I hope," added Mrs. Claxton, "that you have not yet been influenced by
my advice and example; and I come thus early to speak in your ears a
word of caution. Pray do not breathe aught of what I have told you--it
might injure my husband--I only make the revelation as a matter of duty
to one I tried to lead astray."
The thoughts of Mrs. Ellis did not run in a more peaceful channel after
the departure of her friend. But she resolved to confess every thing to
her husband, and promise to conform herself more to his wishes in the
future.
"What," she said, "if he should be in like business difficulties with
Mr. Claxton? He has looked serious for a week past, and has remained at
home every evening during the time--a thing unusual. And I don't think
he has used liquor as freely as common. Something is the matter. Oh, I
wish I had not done that!"
While such thoughts were passing through the mind of Mrs. Ellis, her
husband came home. She met him with an affectionate manner, which he
returned. But there was a cloud on his brow that even her smile could
not drive away. Even as she met him, words of confession were on the
tongue of Mrs. Ellis, but she shrank from giving them utterance.
After tea she resolved to speak. But, when this set-time of
acknowledgment came, she was as little prepared for the task as before.
Mr. Ellis looked so troubled, that she could not find it in her heart
to add to the pressure on his mind an additional weight. And so the
evening passed, the secret of Mrs. Ellis remaining undivulged. And so,
day after day went on.
At length, one morning, the new carpet was sent home and put down. It
was a beautiful carpet; but, as Mrs. Ellis stood looking upon it, after
the upholsterer had departed, she found none of the pleasure she
anticipated.
"Oh, why, why, why did I do this?" she murmured. "Why was I tempted to
such an act of folly?"
Gradually the new carpet faded from the eyes of Mrs. Ellis, and she saw
only the troubled face of her husband. It was within an hour of
dinner-time, and in painful suspense she waited his arrival. Various
plans for subduing the excitement which she saw would be created in his
mind, and for reconciling him to the expense of the carpets, were
thought over by Mrs. Ellis: among those was a proposition that he
should give a note for the bill, which she would pay, when it matured,
out of savings from her weekly allowance of money.
"I can and will do it," said Mrs. Ellis, resolutely: her thought dwelt
longer and longer on this suggestion. "I hope he will not be too angry
to listen to what I have to say, when he comes home and sees the
carpet. He's rather hasty sometimes."
While in the midst of such thoughts, Mrs. Ellis, who had left the
parlour, heard the shutting of the street-door, and the tread of her
husband in the passage. Glancing at the timepiece on the mantel, she
saw that it was half an hour earlier than he usually came home. Eagerly
she bent her ear to listen. All was soon still. He had entered the
rooms below, or paused on the threshold. A few breathless moments
passed, then a smothered exclamation was heard, followed by two or
three heavy foot-falls and the jarring of the outer door. Mr. Ellis had
left the house!
"Gone! What does it mean?" exclaimed Mrs. Ellis, striking her hands
together, while a strange uneasiness fell upon her heart. A long time
she sat listening for sounds of his return; but she waited in vain. It
was fully an hour past their usual time for dining, when she sat down
to the table with her children, but not to partake of food herself.
Leaving Mrs. Ellis to pass the remainder of that unhappy day with her
own troubled and upbraiding thoughts, we will return to her husband,
and see how it fares with him.