Nothing but Money! CHAPTER 13.
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By dawn Mrs. Hofland was up and waiting expectantly. As footfalls begin to sound along the pavement, she listened for the well known tread of her husband's feet — but listened in vain. One after another, the passers come and go; the number steadily increasing as the day opens brighter and broader. Breakfast has been ready for half an hour — but the Doctor is away still. What can it mean? Diane's overstrained feelings were getting the mastery. The wearying doubts that have perplexed her through the night, have changed tocloudy fears. Some evil must have befallen her husband!
It is nine o'clock, and still no word, no appearance. Office patients have arrived and departed; some still linger, on the assurance that the Doctor is expected to come in every moment. Half past nine. Poor Diane! suspense has become agony. Ten o'clock. The two elder children have gone to school, and she is sitting with the baby on her lap, when the door opens, and the face of her husband looks in. No wonder she startles and cries out in mingled gladness and pain — gladness that her husband has returned; pain in beholding the change wrought on him since his sudden departure last evening. His unshaven face is pale and exhausted; his hair in disorder; his eyes sad and troubled; his garments soiled.
"Oh my husband! Where have you been? What ails you? What has happened?"
These sentences leap from Diane's lips, as she lays her babe down hurriedly, and starts forward to meet her husband. He catches both her hands, grasping them with a close, nervous grip; and, as he holds them, says in a voice that chokes the words, spite of all efforts to speak evenly —
"I've been in jail, Diane!"
"Edward! No — no!"
"Yes, Diane." The voice is steady now — manhood, in a strong, quick struggle, has triumphed.
"In jail!"
"Yes, darling, in jail for debt. It was an outrage."
"For debt! What debt?" Tears are running over her face.
"A debt of some ninety dollars to Henry Warfield. He took a mean and cruel advantage. It was after night when the officer arrested me, and I found it impossible to arrangesecurity at so late an hour."
Mrs. Hofland laid her face upon her husband's bosom, and sobbed violently.
"Oh, my husband! My precious husband! That you should have been so disgraced! In jail! I cannot bear this!"
The Doctor drew his arm around Diane, and as they passed up to their chamber, he said —
"The lesson may have been needed, dear. I had time to think last night."
"Needed? Oh, Edward!"
"It is wrong to be in debt — wrong for us, I mean," said the Doctor, as he sat down, on passing into the chamber; "we should not have lived beyond our income."
Deeper shadows fell over the face of Mrs. Hofland. A pang of self-reproach shot through her heart. "It is no fault of yours; I only am to blame," continued the Doctor, who saw into her thoughts. "I have not been a wise and prudent man — I have not restricted my desires to my means — and here is the result. How blind — how foolish — how criminal I have been!"
"Don't, don't, Edward! I cannot bear to hear you say this now," said Diane.
"It is wisest to look truth in the face," was answered. "Truth has been sitting beside me all night, stern of aspect, and I have grown familiar enough with her presence to endure it for awhile longer. She turned the leaves of my book of life backwards, and showed me a record, the reading of which made my cheek red with shame and humiliation. Ah, my wife! there is another law for a man's government in this world, than the law of mere desire. Covetousness is idolatry!"
Mrs. Hofland gazed, in questioning surprise, at her husband. He went on.
"With me, taste and desire have too often ruled instead of prudence; and now, with costly pictures and the like, filling our rooms, I am in debt and at the mercy of eager creditors. This is wrong — all wrong, Diane. Let us begin again — even at the very beginning. This day, I am at least three thousand dollars in debt; and tonight, if a creditor chose, he may send me again to prison!"
Mrs. Hofland shuddered, and her pale face grew paler.
"Oh, Edward! Don't say that," she sobbed, tears flowing anew.
"It is the simple, hard truth of the case, dear — and there is no use in disguise," said the Doctor. "The more steadily we look it in the face, the better shall we be able to comprehend our exact position, and the more certainly devise our way of escape."
"Do you see a way of escape?" asked Mrs. Hofland.
"Yes."
"In what direction?"
"The way will be rough, dear."
"No matter. If your feet are strong enough, mine shall not falter. Point out the way, dear husband! Or, turn into it, and you shall find me a brave and cheerful walker by your side."
"I said, we must begin again — even at the very beginning, Diane."
"We cannot do that. The past is past. But, we may change our course."
"We may begin a new order of things."
"Yes."
"And that is what I mean. But, before this is fairly possible, some steps must be retraced. As I sat waiting on the slow moving hours last night, and watching for the day-dawn, I went over all our affairs, and got at the exact result. It stands thus. The cost
picture's, statuettes, bronze figures, rare and elegant books, coins, medals, minerals, and other things not absolutely required for household comfort, has reached the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars. I propose to sell these by auction. If they bring fifteen hundred dollars only, that will lift half the burden of our debt at once. I feel assured, if the thing is rightly managed, of realizing nearly their cost. I shall arrange in this way: Have them removed to a room, engaged for the purpose, and minutely catalogued and described. Auctioneers understand the management of such matters. Through advertisements and the distribution, of catalogues among the right people, a company may be assembled that will bid up most of the articles to their cost value. In that case, we would be almost freed from debt in an hour. But, this is anticipating too much."
"To sell at auction will certainly involve a heavy sacrifice," said Diane, her countenance not fully responding to the hopeful light which had begun to glow in that of her husband.
"We must expect such a result, and so prepare for disappointment," replied the Doctor.
"A disappointment that will still leave on us the burden of debt."
"But a lighter burden."
"The smallest burden will be as a mountain hereafter," said Diane, despondingly.
"My thought went further," remarked the Doctor, looking steadily at his wife.
"How much further? Did it reach to the entire extinguishment of this debt?" She bent eagerly towards him. "Nothing less than that, Edward."
"It did, Diane."
"Then say on."
"The rent of this house is four hundred and fifty dollars a year."
"Yes."
"Too much for us to pay, under present circumstances."
"I have always thought the rent too high," said Diane.
"We have been no happier here than we were in that cosy nest at first called home."
"Not so happy, I have sometimes thought," replied Diane. "There has been more care for appearances, here; more looking out upon the world; more consciousness of being under the eye of society — and these things take away the mind's tranquility."
"That dear little house is for rent again. I saw the notice up yesterday."
"Then we will go back to it again. Two hundred and fifty dollars saved in our expenses will, of itself, extinguish a thousand dollars of debt in four years, if no quicker means can be found. But, the change to that house will help more than the saving in rent. Two servants are absolutely necessary in this one; in that I can do with a single servant. This will make a difference of at least a hundred and fifty dollars more in our expenses."
"But, the house will afford no office," said the Doctor. "I've thought it over — but can't settle this point."
"The parlor must serve for an office," was answered.
"Then we shall have no parlor — no room in which to receive our friends."
Mrs. Hofland was thinking rapidly. Where there is a will — there is a way, and she found the adage true.
"We can take the room over the parlor," she replied. "There are two rooms, beside this one, on the second floor, and these will give the chambers we need for ourselves and the children."
"There will be no spare room for a friend," objected the Doctor.
"A sofa bed in the parlor can be used on an emergency. But, at present, Edward, only the question of right and duty is before us, and we must settle that, irrespective of other considerations."
"We have twice the quantity of furniture that will be needed," said the Doctor.
"The rest can be sold," was Diane's prompt answer. "A few hundred dollars more will be gained in this way, and debt still further diminished. Out of debt, out of danger, dear husband! Let us act promptly. I shall never have one hour of undisturbed peace, while a dollar of debt remains!"
"Nor I; and as peace of mind is, beyond all mere external things, most to be desired, we will seek it in the direct way. Ah, to think what this burden of debt has cost me! What hours of discouragement — what painful humiliations — what a stinging sense of wrong — what fears and tremors. It has robbed me of freedom and manliness. I have felt myself, all the while, in the power of others. It has been the death's-head at my feast, Diane."
"But shall be no longer, Edward! Sell everything. I would rather have uncarpeted floors, and the humblest and homeliest things around me — than to see your honor touched or your peace invaded."
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