Part 13 (1/2)
”Yes, madam, what company?”
”Do not speak so angrily, dear Ammy. Why are you so impatient?”
”Because I wish to know what gentleman has been favouring you with such a confidential visit!”
Hamilton remembered other occasions when, on his coming home unexpectedly, his wife had shown signs of embarra.s.sment; and, added to this, her present equivocation rendered him violently jealous.
She appeared to shrink from him in fear, and became alternately red and pale, as she answered--
”There has been no gentleman here to see me!”
”No one?”
”No one, dear Ammy!”
Mr. Burgess was on the point of demanding to know who was the owner of the cap which he had seen on his wife's table, and which had now mysteriously disappeared; but emotion checked him, and he paced the floor in silence.
”This is too much!” he muttered, at length, in the bitterness of his heart. ”I could endure poverty, without uttering a complaint for myself; I could endure anything but this!”
”Why, Ammy, what is the matter?” cried Mrs. Burgess, in alarm.
”Nothing--only we are beggars!” answered Hamilton, abruptly.
”Have you been unfortunate?” calmly asked his wife, affectionately taking him by the arm.
”Yes--the most unfortunate of men! I am ruined--we are beggars--but”--
”Dear Ammy, you must not let this cast you down. Business failures frequently happen, but they ought never to destroy domestic happiness. Come, how bad off are we? Are we really beggars?”
”My creditors will take everything,” answered Hamilton, gloomily.
”They will not take us from each other,” said Lizzie.
Mr. Burgess looked at his young wife with a bitter smile.
”Are you such a deceiver?” he muttered through his teeth. ”Can you talk thus when you have just dismissed a lover?”
”Sir!” cried Mrs. Burgess, a glow of indignation lighting her fair face. ”What do you mean?”
”Don't deny what I say!” replied Hamilton. ”You were having an interview with a gentleman when I came in.”
Lizzie trembled with indignation.
”I saw his cap on the table!”
Lizzie laughed outright. ”Come here,” she said, leading her husband away.
Hamilton followed her, and she went to a bureau, unlocked a deep drawer, and opening it, called her husband's attention to its contents.
It was half full of caps!