"Then how in the world have you managed?" he asked. "I have been

ill five weeks, and I know I left only ter.

66 Please, Hester," he said.

"I can't show it to you," said Hes"I do not know where it is

twenty dollars in the drawer. That, exactly." I feel sure, would go a very little way "Ah, I understand. You went out toward the expenses you have had. this morning. Are you sure this is Come, little wife, put down your work not your music in another form?" said and look me in the face. I must have John, pointing to some grapes and a this mystery solved." jelly standing near him on the table.

Hester threw the socks on the table and turned her face, bright and glad in spite of its pallor, to her husband.

A crimson flush overspread Hester's face as she said, pleadingly, "I could not tell how long you might be ill, and the money was very useful. Don't be angry with me, John."

"I wish you would not ask questions, John," she said. "It cannot hurt me to bear for a few weeks the burden "Angry with you, my dear wife! that has always rested on your shoul- My child, I never loved you as I love ders. It will teach me to be more you now, for I never before knew, lenient toward your shortcomings in though I may have suspected, what the future," she added, laughing; "and moral courage there was in that little as for a mystery, I have not indulged heart. Your conduct has put me to in one. Mrs. Ward has been very the blush; for, had I possessed your kind; she took Amy for a fortnight simple faith and your determined will when you were first taken ill, and and-Well, I suppose you'll worry till you find it out. The fact is, I didn't care much for my coral ornaments, so I sold them to her. Coral has come into fashion lately, you know, so I made a good bargain. There now, perhaps you are satisfied ?"

me.

this illness might not have fallen upon
Hitherto I have loved you, my
Hester, as every man worthy of his
manhood must love a good and true
wife; but, as I watched you moving
about my room this morning, I saw
how pale and thin your face had grown,
I think I felt toward you as some
stanch Catholic of the olden time may
have felt toward his patron saint; and
I shall be more patient, more trustful,
in the future, if it please God to give
me back my health; for as I lay awake
last night, long after you thought I
was asleep, and watched your shadow
on the curtain as you sat writing, a
feeling of intense thankfulness came
over me that God, in his great mercy,
when He saw fit to try me, spared me
my wife.
Hester, there is a great

"Nonsense! you great tease," said Light that shows things in all their plain, Hester, "it's not worth looking at." unvarnished truth, kept burning in the

Hester did as she was desired, turning over the music for John's inspection, half fearful that he would tire himself, half pleased to see something of the old love of his art lighting up his face.

valley of the shadow of Death," to drawer, Hester, dear? and I will find which I have been so very near; and the pieces I mean." I have learned that the self-dependence, the distrust of others, upon which I prided myself in the days that seem so long ago, the follies that I, in my blindness, called wisdom, were only stumbling-blocks in my path. That is my confession, Hester; my penance shall last my lifetime," he added smilingly. "And now put your hand in mine, sweet wife, and, while I look into your dear face, let me thank you for the lesson your love and trust have taught me; for I felt to-day, when I heard you tell Amy that Christmas was drawing near, that I should, through you, understand better its language of peace on earth and good-will to men, and that the Christmas bells would ring out for me the promise of a better life, a better hope."

Poor Hester could scarcely understand her husband's words. He was her ideal, her model of all that was good and true; and her loving eyes refused to see any spots in her sun; but John only smiled as she tried to tell him this, and interrupted her by saying that he had some business to talk to her about, paying no attention to her entreaties that he would keep quiet, and leave things to her a little longer.

"I must leave it to you, dear," he replied. "I suppose the copying you have done has been for Mr. Dyson?" "Yes," she replied.

"Well, there are three manuscript pieces in the drawer of the canterbury," continued John. "If I could sell them, we might tide over until I am about again; I can't bear to see you doing that copying.

"Those are the three I mean, darling," he said at last. "I used sometimes to think it a nuisance that I had to grind away from morning till night; but I shall be glad to be at the old mill again," he added reflectively.

"Well, what am I to do with these?" asked Hester, taking up the music.

"Take them to Mr. Dyson," he replied; "I should think the music trade must have looked up by this time,

and tell him he shall have the three for one hundred dollars. I hate to send you on such errands; but I cannot help it in this case."

Hester put the music aside, with an inward prayer that she might be able to sell it, for the gaunt spectre, Poverty, had come nearer their home than John had imagined. Illness is expensive at all times, doubly so in New York, where the eggs and milk, and hundred-andone little delicacies that invalids require, are almost as unattainable for those of limited means as the rest and quiet the doctors prescribe, apparently forgetting what impossible luxuries they are to the majority of their patients. So Hester had thought sadly that morning, when the doctor, after praising her nursing, said, "Mr. Carroll needs nothing now besides quiet, plenty of good living, and perfect mental rest."

Nothing besides!-when those three things comprehended all that was the Will you fetch the most difficult to obtain; and, knowing

this, Hester's heart beat high with wedding day, and thinking sadly that its alternations of hope and fear, as the changed appearance harmonized with next morning she entered the publish- her mood. It was "tidy" enough now, er's office; but, after a few remarks the music was all carefully put away; from Mr. Dyson, the hope died out. "Business was so slack," he said slowly, “that he did not care to bring out anything except a little dance-music; and really Mr. Carroll's pieces looked rather dreamy-far-fetched, he might even say; why, his shelves were piled with compositions of the same character, of which he had not sold as many copies as would pay for the printing. He didn't mind hearing what they were like, though. Perhaps Mrs. Carroll could play them?"

no open books, no loose sheets, were scattered about the closed piano-forte. There was no fire in the grate, no slippers on the hearth-rug, no coat hanging over the easy chair. The "tidiness" was there, but the home-like charm was gone; the room was lonely, chill, and desolate.

Hester sat a little time to collect her thoughts, "I have never deceived him yet," she said, half aloud, at last; "and it's hard to begin now; but I cannot disappoint him. I dare not risk it. He shall have perfect rest!" and she smiled sadly, "at any cost for a little while."

dity; and then, bathing her face and smoothing her hair with the same care for her husband as she had felt six years ago for her lover, she went into the invalid's room.

Hester could not do that; so the melodies had no chance of pleading their own cause, and with an abundance Hester rose, and taking her husband's of polite apologies they were declined; manuscripts with her, went up into Hester wondering, as she walked back Amy's little room, where she put them through the shop, how she should have into a drawer, where they were little the heart to go back and tell John of likely to be seen, murmuring as she did his disappointment. Anything would so, "My poor John!" For herself, be better than that, she felt; even a womanlike, she had no thought, no repetition of the ordeal she had just gone through. So, almost in despair, she went from one music publisher to another, until all she could remember on Broadway and the avenues had been visited; but everywhere Mr. Dyson's words were repeated. At one or two places, where, perhaps, the publisher was touched by the wistful young face, she was told that she might leave the pieces for consideration; but Hester shook her head, for things had altered since John had expressed his gratitude that they could afford to wait. Fairly tired out, mentally and bodily, Hester reached home, looking round as she entered, on the old room that had seemed so bright and cheerful on her

"Have you succeeded, my darling?" he asked, anxiously.

"Yes," replied Hester, feeling a choking sensation as she uttered the falsehood.

"And you got the money ?" he continued.

"Oh yes," was the reply.

"Thank heaven!" said John. "I can rest now. I should not have had a moment's peace if I had thought you were going through what you have endured the last month. But what makes

"Yes," replied his wife, "I can manage very well;" but she felt sick at heart as she wondered how the managing was to be done.

III.

The evening shadows on Christmas Eve came creeping into the room where Hester Carroll sat alone; came creeping in, filling the recesses with strange, weird shapes, distorting everything, and making the piano-forte look like some ungainly monster. They had it all to themselves that evening in the

Now it

you look so dull, Hester?-though I need not ask. I expect you are fairly tired out; and what you have done this morning is not pleasant work for a woman. But try and forget it, darling; I'll take all the disagreeables on my own shoulders when I get well. And I won't grumble at old Dyson again just yet. I know it must have gone to his heart to give you one old room, that, on every previous hundred dollars down. He can't bear Christmas Eve of Hester's married life, the ready-money style of business; but had glowed with light, and comfort, and he is a good fellow after all. And you a cheerful woman's presence. can manage now till Christmas, can't looked dark and dreary, whilst Hester, you, Hester! I shall be able to get with bowed head, sat thinking wearily about then, and something may turn of the impossibility of finding a path up." out of the misery that surrounded her. How she had struggled through the last few weeks she scarcely knew. Her trinkets were gone, and, one by one, the little prettinesses of her home. With the little time Hester had to had gone too; but the money thus obdevote to it, music copying could only tained had been barely enough to satbring her in a few dollars weekly. isfy immediate wants; and so, The trinkets she had were of little Christmas Eve, Hester found herself value, and she possessed no friends or possessed of scarcely a dollar; whilst, relations of whom she could borrow money, even if she had been willing to adopt a measure to which both her husband and herself were so opposed: whilst if, as she once or twice felt tempted to do, she were to tell John the truth, the anxiety would be sure to retard his recovery; and until he was well he would be powerless to help her. So she persisted in the deception that an angel might have hesitated to call a sin, working, planning, scheming, denying herself the commonest necessaries for the sake of her husband and child. And John remembered, after he had learned the truth, how, through it all, she had always had a bright smile or a gentle word for him and Amy.

on

as she ran over the list of her belongings, she could think of nothing that she could, without John's knowledge, convert into money. She knew he must learn the truth soon; but on Christmas Day, the day on which he was to come down stairs for the first time since his illness, she had hoped he might be happy; and the only way in which she could ward off discovery for a day later made her heart ache as she thought of it. Whilst she hesitated the door opened, and Amy came in.

66

Are you all in the dark, mamma?" she asked, as she looked round. "Papa's awake now, and he wants his tea; but he says he'll wait if you're making the puddings."

"Shut the door, my come here," said her want to speak to you."

darling, and "Oh no, mamma, I never use it," mother. "I said Amy, "you may have it to keep." "God bless you, darling," said her Amy obeyed, rather awed by the mother, "I hope you will have it back tone in which the words were spoken. before long. Pray God you may never "I am in sad trouble," continued Hes- know such agony as it has been to ask ter, "and my little daughter is the you this, Amy; I would not have done only one who can help me. You know it had there been anything left of my to-morrow is Christmas Day, Amy, the own. And now go back to papa, my day on which, above all others, we should try to make every one happy; and you and I would like to make poor papa happy, should we not, dear?" "But isn't he happy, mamma?" she asked.

dear little pet, and tell him tea will soon be ready; but, remember, that you must not say anything to him of what I have told you. That, for a little time, must be a secret between you and me. Papa is to be happy to

"He will not be when he knows some-morrow, is he not?" thing I have to tell him, darling," re- For a few moments after Amy had plied her mother; "but that need not left her, Hester sat huddled up in the be till to-morrow, if you will help me. corner of the couch, weeping hot, bitter Listen to me, Amy. I am talking to tears, that would be shed, however she you as if you were much older than might struggle to keep them back by you are; and you will understand me telling herself that she ought to be very better by and by. My trouble is that thankful that John was spared to her I have no money, not, enough to buy and not sit crying there on Christmas our dinner for to-morrow; and I have Eve. However, at last she scolded not even anything for which I could herself into calmness, and then, drying get money. There is something of her eyes, she began the preparations yours, darling, if you would lend it to (such poor little preparations as they me; you shall have it back as soon as had gradually grown to be) for tea; and, ever I can get it. Oh, Amy, my little her task completed, she carried the one, forgive me!" tray upstairs. Up there everything "Oh, mamma," said the child, in was warm and cosy; there was a great distress; "please don't cry, bright fire, and John, seated by it in I will give you everything his easy chair, with Amy standing, I have only - only not Peepy, with her kitten in her arms, beside please," she added, looking half in- him, looked up with a glad smile as clined to cry at the thought of her Hester entered. little black kitten being given in exchange for anything, even a plumpudding.

mamma.

"It's not Peepy, darling," said her mother. "Do you think you would would mind lending me your silver mug, Amy,

till papa is quite well and busy again?"

"Why, little wife," he cried, "how pale and pinched you look!--and you are as cold as ice! What in the world have you been doing? Is there no fire down stairs? down stairs? Is that why you brought the kettle up here?"

Hester thought sadly of the impossi