A Question of Funds.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81823, 16 August 1906, Page 4

A Question of Funds.

A Very Short Story with a Very Long Moral, which is Dedicated to Those Wise Rulers who Lament the Falling Birthrate. She lifted his highness hastily from his cradle, because out in the little hall she heard a familiar step. His highness chuckled and kicked and made vigorous attempts to seize a handful of her hair. Laughing fondly, she disengaged the small chubby fingers, and covering them with kisses, she bore their roguish owner in binmph to greet his father. He stood—this husband of hers—on tha door mat, wiping his boots, and carefully drawing off a pair of fur-lined gloves—her present to him at Christmastime. He looked tired, for his work was hard and the hoars long; bat there was a bright smile on his lace as he stooped to kiss her, and his hands weren't too weary to clap for the benefit of his kicking, crowing offspring. He removed his top coat and hung it up, and then slipped his arm around his wife's waist, and together they entered the snug little ilning-room. A fire burned merrily In the grate, and a large, comfortable-looking tabby purred contentedly on the hearthrug. "You've had a trying day, dear?" she asked, sympathetically, as he sank with a sigh of relief into his own particular basket chair, holding out bis arms for the child as he did so. "Bather, little one," be answered; "but I'm going to forget all about it now—in fact, I have forgotten. She gave him the boy, and then settled herself happily on a stool at his feet. She caught his hand and rubbed it against her cheek—a cheek that was well nigh as soft and cherubic as was that of his highness himself. Was ever living woman a3 happy, sho wondered, and a mist of sheer grateful joy dimmed for an instant the lustre of her brown eyes. " I've had a tiring day, too," she declared merrily, as she smiled up at him. " First, his highness refused to sleep and cried for two whole hours when 1 attempted to be firm; then yonr mother called and gave me an hour's lecture on the general uianageI ment of infants; and then his highness woke I up and wanted someone to play with him; and so I'd only just finished tidying when I heard you ring." '-, )" What a wonderful little wou:.n it is!" he said, fondly, and his strong, tin;d face. began to reflect some of her merriment- " I often wonder if it was cruel for me to take you away from that big cheerful homo of yours, and to bring all these new responsibilities on your small shoulders." She looked dreadfully concerned at this. "Hugo, dear," she said earnestly, "never think that I wouldn't eichange you'and his highness for all the freedom and unresponsibility in Christendom." " You're sure you don't repent bavin;; bacome a poor ;::-.u"s wife—yon, who were brought up in the lap of luxury ? " he asked wistfully, tilting her face that he might read its eipression. "Sure? I'm certain—certain; and I'm not always going to be a poor man's wife, either. When you've written your boo!;, and all the world's raving about you—what then ? " "Ah! what then?" he echoed, again, n trifle sadly this time. " Then 1 v.:u right not to wait, Jessie. Sometimes I think if I had kept my own counsel for a few more years, and had not tpoken to you till I was in-a better position, it would have been braver—and wiser." There were tears in h*r eyes—real teais now. She bent toward him and tried to encircle him and their child in one convincing; embrace. *'Hugo,if you had waited, goodness knows what would have happened. You mi■•ht !:: ve found some one else—you—oh, Huge, you might have died ! And I should have ben 'eft desolate. Fancy, me a sober old maid, wearing a shawl indoors and ch'rishittg a bundle of faded latters tied up with lave;:,".,r. Think, dear, what you've saved me from ! " Her voice was tragic—she wis absolutely out of breath with this catalogue of possibilities. They both laughed, and his highness crowed almost as if he appreciated the situation. Then a long, musing silence settled down upon them. A yellow tongue of flame shot up brightly from the fire and illuminated the whole room —every detail of it; then it died suddenly into darkness, and it seemed to Jessie's fancy that the lamp all at once bm-ncd strangely dim. A curious feeling of fear overpowered her—she clutched at her husband'* baud, looking timidly round in the darkness ; but the hand was cold—cold and hard : strange, very strange, but it fe't more like" l wood than human flesh and blood. She tried to start up, but her limbs seemed frozen and paralyzed. A load, bewildering buzzing sounded in her ear.;; yet above it all she still heard !.i-i highne.-s cooir.q ;,,(;'.;-—or was, it the purling of the tabby cat? . She stretched out her arms desperately as U to free herself from Eome terrible obstruction ; and then a cord in her brain seemed to strain and snap, and—shs opened her eyes. For a little while she sat very still, clasping the massive carved arms of her easy chair, piecing things together, disentangling; and then suddenly with a sharp cry of pain she understood. And she—she was forty-nine and a spinster. For alas! for her starved woman's heart, alas! for her vanished hope-,. Hugh had waited—it was a question of funds.