Her Husband's Purse

d that the prospective bridegroom, in spite of his jubilant happiness, did have one or two misgivings on certain points, and that the bride, while wholly ignorant of the real calibre of the man s

l betrothal with a man like Daniel Leitzel, while apparently inexplicable, becomes, in view

e met or even heard of him, when a little episode, trivial enough in itself, opened her eyes t

e English and French languages) she was greatly excited at the prospect before her. So barren had her girlhood been of youthful pleasures, so sombre and uneventful her daily routine, and so repressed every natural, restless instinct toward brightness and happiness, that the idea of seeing a great dramatic performance loomed big before her as an intoxicating delight. All day, alone in her isolated suburban home, i

town, where she was attending a young matrons' luncheon party,

he has been having such a gay time herself-she's so popular. She'll be so glad I'm g

the afternoon Harriet returned

e, "Aunt Virginia is going to take me to see Nazimova to-night! Oh!" She laughed aloud, and danced about the spaci

hair. "The editor of the Bulletin gave Walter two tickets as part payment for some legal business Walter did

t quite

tired, I'll have to rest before dinner if I'm going

es

the children come to my room and wake me, will you

Harr

iet asked, n

invitation and she is comi

e much too poor to buy tickets for the theatre, we can't possibly refuse to use them on the rare occasio

Harriet! I can't give it up!"

dearie, you shouldn't make engagements without first finding out

er, her brother-in-law, inquiring, in his kind, solicitous way, the cause

rned to his wife for an explanation. But H

all day. I was at Mrs. Duncan's luncheon, you know. I didn't get home unt

own comfort and convenience. Walter had no illusions about the wife of his bosom and the mother of his three children. He knew perfectly well that she loved no one as she loved herself, and that this dominating self-love made her often cold-blooded and even sometimes a bit false, though always, he was sure, unconsciously so. He was still quite fond of her, which spoke w

ances where her own inclinations would have to be sacrificed for thos

nted dinner-table with its old family china and silver. Harriet, in her home-made evening gown, graced with distinction the stately dining-room furnished in

t's the danger of having one of your family living with you," she sighed. "It is so apt to make a husband and wife less near to each other. I am always resist

nd leaving that dear girl alone here with the b

s crazy about them. They are the g

mit! I've been thinking, lately, that we ought to do more than we do for Margaret; she ought to know girls of her own age; she ought to have a bit of s

ncle Osmond she had a lot less diversion and life about her than she has now, and you know

or your uncle is all the more reason why she shoul

complain, I don't see

not to let her form the habit! For that very reason we should think for her a

t alone hers? And if we should spend money that w

ad! Margaret need not live the life of a nursemaid because we're not rich, any more than you do, honey. It's absurd! And it's all wrong. W

f his too manifest liking for Margaret. Being something of a philosopher, he had felt occasionally, when his sister-in-law had seemed to hi

tle enough to divine that it was the absolutely feminine quality of Margaret's personality, the penetrating, all-pervasive womanliness which one felt in her presence, which expressed itsel

es and look of high breeding characteristic of the Berkeley race, her inexpressive countenance betrayed a commonplace mind and soul, while Margaret, lacking the Berkeley beauty, did have the family look and air of breeding, which g

with her-she's magnetic to her finger-tips! What's more,

e-a gentleman of old family, well set up physically, and indeed good-looking, chivalrous to his wife, devoted to his children, temperate in his habits, upright and honourable. She did not even criticise his natural indolence, which, rather

st at dinner to-night had shocked and hurt him to the quick. He was sure that something really outrageous on Harriet's part must have caused it. Yet rather than "raise a row" with Harriet, he acquiesced in her decision to leave Margaret at home. It must be said in justice to him that had his astute wife not kept

got over her outbreak of weeping and was now sitting

er own subservient position, that was opening Margaret's eyes this

heatre, and told her in an off-hand, careless, artistic manner

d-blooded tenacity; nor because she was in the least afraid of her sister. After living eight years with Uncle Osmond she would hardly quail before Harriet! But it was that thing Harriet had said to her this afternoon-that awful thing that burned in her brain and heart-it was that with which she must reckon before she could tak

y as that. This attitude, then, was probably only a pretext to cover something else which Harriet was no doubt unwilling to admit even to her own soul, that something else which Margaret, herself, had tried so

?' Now if she had only said, 'We should not make engagements without first consulting with eac

theatre she got up from her bed and went to Harriet's room adjoining the nurser

nd earnestly upon every phase of her difficult situation, determined that before she slept she wo