" No further argument was needed. Mr. Cartwright
had sixty dollars in one of the bureau drawers,--a fact well known to
his wife. And it was also well known to her that it was the
accumulation of very careful savings, designed, when the sum reached
one hundred dollars, to cancel a loan made by a friend, at a time
when sickness and a death in the family had run up their yearly
expenses beyond the year's income. Very desirous was Mr. Cartwright
to pay off this loan, and he had felt lighter in heart as those
aggregate of his savings came nearer and nearer to the sum required
for that purpose.
But he had no firmness to oppose his wife in anything. Her wishes in
this instance, as in many others, he unwisely made a law. The
argument about cousin Sally Gray was irresistible. No more than his
wife did he wish to look poor in her eyes; and so, for the sake of
her eyes, a new carpet was bought, and the old one--not by any means
as worn and faded as the language of his wife indicated--sent up
stairs to do second-hand duty in the spare bedroom.
Not within the limit of forty dollars was the expense confined. A
more costly pattern than could be obtained for one dollar a yard
tempted the eyes of Mrs.
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