Jack Foster's Wife.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1872, 5 July 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

Jack Foster's Wife.

BY "BONNE HEUHE. "What, in the name of sense, could havo possessed Jack Foster to marry such a pink and while doll as Flossio Weston ? " was tho unanimous remark that circulated among Jack's bachelor fiiends when the wedding caids, accompanied by the conventional bit of cake, had been left at their various destinations. " A little bit of a creature, with no other idea of life than that it was made to dress and spend money in." " I'll give hei six months to make him a bankrupt ! " exclaimed Ned Lowry, who, having been Jack's special " chum," felt qualified to express a decided opinion. " I always thought Jack was a sensible fellow, but I'll never put faith in. human nature again." And while Jack's friends are thus expressing their regrets and prognostications, he was away on his wedding trip, his whole soul infused with a delightful sense of protective gallantry toward the little creature who nestled so confidingly against his*- encircling arm, and privately congratulating himself at intervals of five minutes, or less, upon being the luckiest fellow the sun ever shone on. And he would have been pretty sure of a sympathising verdict from any one who could have seen tho fairy-like figure beside him, her piquant face set in a frame of golden hair, and surmounted by the white bridal bonnet, while her large violet eyes rivalled in beauty and brilliancy the sapphires that sparkled in her shell-like ears and nestled in the foamy lace at her slender throat. A woman to be loved, petted, shielded from every rough wind that blew ; and yet a keen and correct reader of human nature could have detected in the sunny eyes and around the corners of the rosebud mouth" indications of firmness and courage that few would have given her credit for — of which, perhaps, she was scarce conscious herself. The wedding trip over, the married pair returned to town, and'began preparations for housekeeping. Although Jack Foster's business had been in a very prosperous condition for several years past, and he had a snug Bum in bank, he had still his fortune to make, and the. presents he had lavished upon his betrothed, all elegant, and many quite costly, had already made an inroad i upon bit reserve fond. Owning & house was a luxury at present beyond hit means, but ho -hired 4 charming residence in one of the principal

sheets, and then, accompanied by his wife, set out to purchase the necessaiy furniture. _ When the things were all in and the house " to rights," it looked like 'a little earthly paiadise; but when the bills came in, a few clays later, Jack tittered a prolonged and slightly dismajed " phew ! " consoling himself, howevei, by the leflection that " the worst was over now." But Jack found that the " worst," so far from being over, was likely to assume a chronic and pormanent form. Flossie loved pretty things and tasteful decoiations, and as foi saying "no" to any request of heis, that was a physical, mental and moral impossibility; and before the end of six months, her husband found that those requests were threatening to reduco his funds to such a condition that he would no longer have any use for a haulier. One day, however, as Jack sat in his office, tiying to think of some way to increase his income, afiiend dropped in, and they cnteied into con>eisation, during which Jack's faco biightcned and when his fiicnd left, ho took with him a check representing more than half the amount Toster had in the bank, together with a letter of instructions to a broker in Wall street. For scvoial days after that transaction, Jack Foster was another man. Tho careworn look that had been creeping into his eyes had given place to an expression of eager and joyful expectancy, as when one waits for some confidently anticipated good news ; and he surprised his wife with several new and beautiful piesents. Finally one morning, as they were seated at their cosy bieakfast, Flossie said, in her pretty coaxing way : " Jack, dear, Mrs. Maxom's ball comes off next week, and I would like to have a new dress. I can got a perfectly lovely pattern at Crape and Dolman's for a hundred dollars, and the making and trimmings will only cost as much more." "And your puise, as usual, is empty, you extravagant little darling ! " said Jack, playfully. " Well, I haven't got my cheque-book with me, nor that amount in my pocket ; but you can come down to the office this afternoon, and I'll have it ready for you!" and kissing the rosebud mouth upturned to thank him, Jack left the house, whistling gaily. For a few hours after her husband's departure, pretty little Mrs. Foster busied herself with what she was pleased to toim her " household duties," although they were merely nominal, as she had thiee competent servants ; then, after a dainty lunch, she concluded it was about time to think about going down for that money. When about ready, however, a visitor was announced, who detained her some lime, so that it was after three o'clock when she at last left the house and wended her way to her husband's office. She had leachid that part of the building where his oflice was situated, and paused for a moment to detach some fiinge on her dress that had caught against a nail, when fiorn tho door of the office, slightly ajar, sho caught tho sound of her husband's tones, but so changod as to be scarcely recognisable. '• Yes, Ned ! " ho was saying, in a voice that was almost a moan. "Everything gone — swept away in an hour? Instead of being, as I expected to be to-day at this time, about a hundred thousand dollars ahead, by that speculation, I am bankrupt. This fatal venture of mine has used up the money that was indispensable to the prosecution of my regular business ; for not content with my first purchase, I yesterday drew out all that remained in the bank in older to secure several bundled additional shares of that stock, and now eveiy thing about me is in ruins. We will have to bieak up housekeeping, of course, and go to boarding." " Ah, there it is !" said Ned, oracularly. "If you had only been sensible, Jack, and married a piactical woman, who could havo been a true helpmeet to you in a calamity like this. Any wife with an idea of economy can always keep house for herself and husband much cheaper than they can boaid." " Don't say a word in disparagement of my choice, Ned, said Jack, with spirit. "I havo the sweetest little wife the sun ever shone on, and wouldn't exchange for a paragon. Tho most bitter draught in this cup of sorrow is tho thought that J must so suddenly deprive her of all the luxuries and even comfoits to which she has been accustomed. She was coming heie this veiy afternoon, too, for some money I had promised her." " She'll be along, no doubt, and there'll be a pretty seene — hysterics, fainting, and so foith," said Ned, in a rather heartlsrs tone. " Those women that have been petted and indulged all their lives arc the veiy dickens to manage when things go wrong." "I could bear it if it was only myself! " said Jack, with another groan. "But to think I must involve her m my ruin is terrible !" "How much would it take to set you on your* feet again ? " asked Ned, after a pause. "With five thousand dollars I could pull through, I suppose. Two of my notes mature tomorrow, and if I could meet them my ciedit would be .safe for the piesent. But where to get that amount, even as a loan, is moie than I know." Up to this moment Flossie had stood like one petufied. Her fiist impulse, we must acknowledge, had been to relieve her feelings by a dismayed slniek. There was a momentary hysterical constriction at her throat and a dimness befoio her oyes ; then the spell passed, and she listened in silence until, at the last words, a sudden thought lighted up her face. She tarried just long enough to waft her daintily gloved hand from her lips with a kiss, and then clench it with a defiant shake, after which she passed lapidly and noiselessly from the building. "You dear, dailing Jack !" she exclaimed, as, with her face a shade paler than usual, but instinct with a bright, resolute expression, she walked swiftly homeward. " You shall find that your wife is ready and willing to share your ill as well as your good foitune. And you, Mr. Caviller ? " she added, with a pout, " shall see that there is one woman who can hear bad news without hysterics ! " Mi 9. Foster stopped once on her way home, calling at an office to request that a messengerboy might be sent immediately to her residence ; then, after reaching home, laid aside her out-door garments and wrote sevpral notes which she dispatched by the boy. This done, she summoned the servants to her room. "You have been veiy good and faithful girls," she said, quietly. " But an unexpected change in my household arrangements makes it necessary for me to dismiss you at once. I will give each of you an excellent recommendation, however, to my lady friends, and will give you also five dollars in addition to your wages, as an offset to this t short notice." The servants accepted the situation without any demur, for theie was a look in the quiet, pale face, and a self-possessed dignity in the tones of their young mistress that checked any garrulous inquiries ; and after receiving their money and the recommendations, they went out at once, at her suggestion, to see about securing new places. Half-an-hour later the bell rang, and was answered by Mrs. Foster heiself, who recognised her visitor as one of the partners of a largo jewellery establishment which she had been accustomed to patronise liberally. She irvited him into tho pailor, where, upon a table, was tastefully spread out a glittering array of jewels, silverware, and other expensive bijoute) ie. She had retained for herself one plain set of jewellery and her watch , and chain, together with such articles of silverware as were required for constant use, but that was all. " I find it advisable to pare with these things, Mr. Murray," she said, without the slightest trace of emotion, in her quiet, lady-like tones. " What will you give me in cash for them ? " Mr. Murray inspected tho articles, then replied : " Twenty-five hundred dollars." Mrs. Foster's eyes sparkled. " Can you take them away and let me have the money this afternoon ? " " Certainly, madam. I will go back, and return with the money and one of my clerks in an hour." "Half the amount already?" exclaimed Flossie, softly clapping her hands, as Mr. Murray left the house. "There's a friend nearer than you think, my dear Jack. Your notes shall not go to protest if I can help it." A few moments later the bell rang again, and this time it was a member of a house-furnishing fum who made a specialty of attending private •ales, and whose name Flossie had incidentally heard some time before and remembered. Be was taken through the house; and then sitting down in the parlor, made out a hasty schedule, which he handed to Mrs, Foster. " Three thousand dollars ! " exclaimed the delighted little woman, under her breath. "You darling man' ! " Then added aloud : "It would be a' great- nccopunod^fcoi} to me to have the

I money this afternoon. I will give you a bill of salo and you can remove the things at your convenience." " Very well, madam," was the obliging rejoinder. "I will send a clerk with the money and a document for you to sign, but will not disturb the things until to-morrow." Thcro were a few other business callers that afternoon, including one or tv*o of Mis. Foster's particular lady friends who had admired and coveted some of the elegant costumes in which she had appeared on a few occasions ; and when she had closed the door on the last one and sat down for a moment to recover a little from the excitement she had been passing through, bhe held in her hand a roll of bills repiesenting ncaily eight thousand dollars. Never before had money looked so attractive to her ; never, through all the happy months of her married life, had the bond that bound her to her husband appeared bo strong and endearing as now, when, of her own free -nail, she had so piomptly adapted herself to the altered circumstances his misfortune had brought upon them. It was with a haggard face and weary step that Jack Foster ascended the steps of Ms home, at the close of that day of han owing care. His wife had not kept her appointment at his office, and the terrible news yet remained to be bioken to her. Sigkuig hoavily, ho fitted liis night-key m the lock. It refused to turn — the door was evidently , bolted on the insido ; and pulling the bell, he stood awaiting an answer, with a -feeling of dreary apathy such as he had never experienced before A light step came along the hall ; a hand shot back the bolt, and then the door opened and Flossie's bright face looked out. " Ah, Jack, dear !" she exclaimed, m a voice so fnll of sweet womanly tenderness that poor Jack's heait swelled almost to bursting. " You are late. I was beginning to feel anxious about you ! Come in — dinner is waiting." Jack tiied to speak, but could not; and seeing his agitation, Flossie tupped away down stairs, bidding him follow her as soon as ho had laid aside his coat. Jack felt like a criminal going to receive his sentence, as he entered tho cheery little diningroom. His wife was standing, looking, with an air of quiet contentment, over tho neatly spi cad table, fioin which, in his agitation, he did not notice that several of the more expensive articles of silverware were missing. Taking his seat, he went on with his dinner in moody silence, but revolving over and over in his mind the question, "How shall I break the news to her?" while Flossie watched him with a fuitive but pitying glance, cogitating, on her part, as to the best time for the disclosure of her secret. At last tho desired opportunity came, when Mrs. Foster rose to remove her husband's plate beforo bunging m the desseit. "Why, my dear, where is Sarah?" he asked, looking up. " I dismissed her this afternoon, together with the two other giils," answered Flossie, quietly. "Dismissed them?" echoed her husband. "What for?" "I'll tell you presently, dear," was the softieply; then taking tho little box she had been keep big on a side-table, she placed it befoio him, adding : " Just examino that, please, while I am bringing in the dessert." Mechanically Jack raised the lid, just as Flossie slipped from the ro6m ; but the next moment an exclamation broke from his lips, as the piecious bills met his oyo. Flossie was a few minutes longer than was really necessary in bringing in the dessert ; and she re-entered the dining-room, Jack was looking in a dazed, bewildeied way at the contents of the httlo box, his face pale and Iris whole frame quivering : " What does this mean, Flossie? " he managed to ask. " Nothing very bad, I hope ! " said his wife, as she came to his side, and slipped one arm around his neck. Then laying hor cheek against his, she added, in a caressing whisper: " I have been anticipating our altered fortunes a little, Jack, that is all. I was in tho lobby when you were talking to Mr. Lowiy this afternoon, and heard everything." Then in an eager, animated tone she continued: "And everything is all arranged so nicely as could be, Jack ! I've sold my jewellery, and all the furnituieand other things except what we leally need 1 and to-morrow we will look up a nice, cosy little house at one-third the rent we have been paying tor this, and what is left after tho five thousand dollars you need to meet those notes, will keep _us coinfoi table until your prospects are bottei ; for astheie aro only two of us, I meau to be housekeeper myself, and dispense with extia help, except a woman now and then, to wash and clean and do such heavy work." Jack's right hand went around the waist of his young wife with a clasp that almost took her breath away, while the other was placed before his face to hide tho tears which would como at this blessed and unlooked-for lelief — not only lelief from the task of disclosing his desperate situation to his wife, and witnessing hsr anticipated grief and dismay, but relief irom a difficulty the meeting of which — as ho could now meet it — would enable him to save his business from absoltfto ruin. " Come, now, Jack," spoke Flossie's cooing voice at his ear, " you must not weep. You know /was to do all the weeping — with hysterics tin own in — according to Mr. Ned Lowry. I kissed my hand to you, my darling, as I stood near your office, and then shook my fist at him. But I'll punish liim 1 You shall ask him to dinner soino day, and ho will have to confess himself mistaken." One more ecstatic squeeze from Jack, and a few loving cai esses from Flossio, mm then they settled th'mselves to the enjoyment of the dessert, and after dinner sat down together for a " good talk," as Flossie called it, about what it was best to do until their prospects brightened again. It did not take long to find a house suited to their wants, and the moving was soon accomplished. On the day those two notes came due another of Jack's creditors — an eldeily gentleman, having a keen eye to businoss, but a full-sized heart — called upon him, and wringing his hand with tho cordiality of one who had come to ask rather than to giant a favor, said : * " Foster, my boy, I've heard of the doings of that little heroine, your wife. She is one of a thousand. And I just called to oifer you an extension of Bix months on your bill at our place, and also to say that, if you want any more goods in the meantime, you need not hesitate to apply for them. A wife like yours is better than a bank account. Ned Lowry came to dinner in Jack Foster's modest but cheerful and happy little horne — not once only, but several times ; and so did the other bachelor friends and sometime scoffers ; and one and all carried away golden opinions of the heroic little woman who had so bravely met half way and fairly vanquished what had threatened to be a crushing calamity. — New l r ork Ledger,