I felt rather afraid that she spoke truth, when I saw how faint and exhausted the poor lady appeared, when at length she found a few minutes for repose. She looked so very thin and so pale, as she stretched herself on the sofa, when the light of day began to grow dim. She opened a book with gilt edges, which I had observed to be her favourite companion, and which my friend had told me was, as she believed, a great mine from which man drew all the virtue which he possessed. She read a little, until her worn, anxious face assumed a peaceful expression. She raised her eyes, and looked upwards; I thought that they were moistened with tears; and her pale lips silently moved, as if she were speaking to some unseen friend. Then she shut the book, and placed it beside her, and her blue eyes languidly closed; and she lay so still, so very still, that she looked as though she never would move again.
The sound of the opening of the outer door seemed to awaken her in a moment. She started up with quite a changed look, so bright, so animated, so cheerful; passed her hand hastily over her hair to smooth it, and then ran out of the room: and I heard her voice below in lively tones giving a fond welcome to her husband.
It must have been difficult, however, for the poor lady to keep up a cheerful manner in his presence. I never saw so gloomy a man. It was in vain that she troubled him not with a single care of her own,—that she spoke not a word of her failing health, her difficulties with servants, her troubles about the bills, her ceaseless anxieties with the children. I watched him where I lay beside my thread of gold; for Lily’s habit of filling her box so full that she never even attempted to close it, gave me constant opportunities of looking about me, and seeing what passed in the room. When the children were called down to see their father, the stern gloom in his face never changed. Even when his wife placed little Rosey in his arms, he kissed her soft cheek with an air so sad, that the babe, half frightened, held out her hands to be taken back to her mother. Lily could not win his attention at all, and left the room mortified and vexed; and Eddy received no answer when he said, “Are you not glad that Georgie is coming home to-morrow?”
“I’m sure that there’s something the matter with that man,” said the Thimble, when the sound of the dinner-bell had cleared the room.
“There’s something weighing on his heart, you may be sure,” observed the Scissors, “for he used to be as merry as a child. I’ve seen him galloping up and down this very room, with Master Eddy perched upon his shoulders, and Lily scampering at his heels; and it would have puzzled even our sharp friend the Needle to say which was the liveliest of the three.”
“He’s in trouble, then,” said the Thimble: “I’ve seen enough of life to know that mortals have their trials, which are to them as the hammer and the furnace to us.”
The opinion of our philosophic friend was confirmed that evening, as, when the lamp was lighted, and the curtains drawn, and the children all quiet in bed, the husband and wife sat together in deep, earnest conversation.
“You will hide nothing from me, my beloved,” said the lady, laying her hand fondly on his, and looking anxiously into his face. “I have felt for a long time that something was wrong; suspense is worse than the truth could be. I can bear all, all but to see you unhappy, and not be able to lighten, or at least share your trials!”
He drew her closer to him. I could not see his face; it was turned from the place where I lay; and he spoke so low, in a hoarse, agitated voice, that I could catch but few of his words. They were such as “ruin,” “bankruptcy,” “poverty;” the meaning of which I could scarcely comprehend; but I saw the lady’s cheek grow very pale, though her manner was quiet and composed.
“Well, dearest,” she said softly at length, “there are far greater trials than poverty. It will only draw us closer together. I can be happy in a very small abode—a cabin, a hut—so that my dear husband and children are with me. I will be Rosey’s nurse myself. We can manage on little; so little, you shall see what a housewife I shall be!”