Love arms
your hand and quickens your brain. Resolutions break large from the
swelling soul. Energy leaps into your action like light. Gradually you
bring back into your humble home a few traces of the luxury that once
adorned it. That wife, whom it is your greatest pleasure to win to
smiles, wears a half-sad look as she meets these proofs of love; she
fears that you are perilling too much for her pleasure.
----For the first time in life you deceive her. You have won wealth
again; you now step firmly upon your new-gained sandals of gold. But you
conceal it from her. You contrive a little scheme of surprise, with
Frank alone in the secret.
You purchase again the old home; you stock it, as far as may be, with
the old luxuries; a new harp is in the place of that one which beguiled
so many hours of joy; new and cherished flowers bloom again upon the
windows; her birds hang, and warble their melody where they warbled it
before. A pony--like as possible to the old--is there for Madge; a fete
is secretly contrived upon the lawn. You even place the old, familiar
books upon the parlor-table.
The birthday of your own Madge is approaching,--a _fete_ you never pass
by without home rejoicings.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241