CHAPTER XII.A KEEPER IN THE HOUSE.LILIAN opened the door, and kissed me as usual when I came home.“Why, Paley, you have been drinking,” whispered she.“I had a severe pain, and took a glass of whiskey. I feel fetter now,” I replied.“There’s a gentleman waiting for you in the sitting-room,” she added.“Yes, I saw him. It is Buckleton, an old friend of mine. I may ask him to dine with us.”I think Lilian suspected something was wrong with me, though I am sure she had not the remotest conception of the nature and extent of the mischief which was gathering around us. Probably the smell of my breath startled her, with the added fact that I was a little flighty in my manner, for I believe that nothing can be more justly startling to a woman than the possibility of her husband becoming a drunkard. She knew nothing whatever of my financial affairs. Ihad never made her my confidant; on the contrary, I had weakly and foolishly assumed to be “full of money,” and behaved with a liberality and extravagance far beyond my means.Buckleton was waiting for me. I owed Buckleton eight hundred dollars, for which he had no security. What did Buckleton want with me? It had been his own proposition to give me, under a liberal interpretation of his own words, unlimited credit as to time, if not amount. Why had he come to my house? I had been at the bank all the forenoon, and that was the proper place to meet a man in relation to business. Of course if I had not owed him eight hundred dollars, I should not have troubled my head about this particular visit of an old acquaintance.However, I had drank two glasses of whiskey, and the circumstance of his coming did not trouble me much. I still felt light-hearted, and was not disposed to let anything trouble me much or long. I smoothed down my hair, and after drinking a glass of ice-water in the dining-room, which my parched tongue required, I entered the room where Buckleton was waiting for me. He was as cordial as though he had come only as an old friend. But exhilarated as I was, I could not fail to noticea certain constraint on his part, as though his cordiality was in a measure forced.He was glad to see me. He had business at the South End, and thought he would call in upon me as he was passing. The messenger at the bank told me, the next day, he had been there to find me ten minutes after I left. But his coming at this particular time, he labored to represent, was purely an accident. He was glad to see me so well situated. He hoped I should call on him at the West End with Mrs. Glasswood. He had not had the pleasure of knowing my wife, but he hoped to make her acquaintance. All these things he said with the utmost suavity, and then rose from the sofa to take his leave; but he did not take it, and I knew he did not intend to do so until he had said something about the little matter of eight hundred dollars that I owed him. He had his hat in his hand, and moved toward the door.“Stay and dine with me, Buckleton,” I interposed. “Dinner is all ready, and I should be delighted to have you.”“Thank you! Thank you! I should be glad to do so, but I have to meet a gentleman at the store in half an hour,” he replied, consulting his watch.“Let him wait; you needn’t be over half an hour behind time.”“I can’t do that, for the fact is he owes me some money, and I am desperately short just now.”Bah! I had given him the opportunity to say that, and it was now an easy step for him to dun me.“Well, come up next Sunday, won’t you? And bring your wife with you. We shall be delighted to see you,” I continued, hoping to throw him off the track.“I will, if possible; but I often find that Mrs. Buckleton has made engagements for me, and, if I remember rightly, her father and mother dine with us next Sunday. Besides, I have been so annoyed with business matters for a week, that I have not felt much like going into company. I expected a remittance of six thousand dollars from Havana, and learned the other day that the party had stopped payment. I don’t know what we shall do to meet our own notes. By the way, Glasswood, would it be perfectly convenient for you to pay the amount you owe us in a few days?”“It would not be perfectly convenient,” I replied, squarely.“I know very well that I proposed to wait forit, but, you see, this confounded Cuban affair throws us all out of groove; and we are in hot water up to the eyes. Isn’t it possible for you to pay it?”“Perhaps it is possible, but it would be deused inconvenient. You know I should not have bought so largely if you had not suggested that I might pay for the goods in my own time.”“We sold you, as you are aware, at the very lowest cash prices,” he added.I was not aware of it, but I did not deem it wise to open any controversy on a subject so insignificant.“I don’t see how I can do a thing for you, Buckleton, at present.”“It would be a very great accommodation if you could. Half would be better than nothing, though we want every dollar we can possibly raise. I will discount five per cent. for cash.”“That’s liberal, but it won’t help me much.”“Think it over, and see what you can do for me, Glasswood. I am in a tight place.”“I am sorry for it, but I haven’t got quite settled yet. I shall be able to pay you in a couple of months.”“I may be in bankruptcy before that time,” saidhe, with a grim smile. “I will call and see you to-morrow morning at the bank.”He went away. I thought I was inclined to stretch the truth quite enough in making out a case, but I could not equal him. He was in no more danger of failing than our bank was. The Cuban matter was a myth. I was satisfied that he had been examining into the condition of my credit. It was more than probable that he had heard rumors of my little difficulty at the bank, and had not heard of the triumphant conclusion of the affair. Shaytop had been whispering in his ear. Very likely my uncle had hinted that I was living too fast. Certainly some persons had been busy with matters which, in my estimation, did not concern them. I was indignant, and felt that I had been abused. Let me say to young gentlemen that shrewd business men usually know us better than we know ourselves, and see sooner than we which way we are going.Lilian was waiting for me in the dining-room. Of course she wished to know “what that man wanted;” and I turned off the affair as best I could. I sat down, and for a sick man who found it necessary to take medicine, I ate a very hearty dinner.“Well, my dear, how do you like the house, and housekeeping?” I said, in order to turn the subject from “that man.”“Very much, indeed, Paley. The only draw-back is that mother feels so badly about it.”“O, well! she will get over it in a few days.”“Do you know, Paley, that I have been thinking of something?” she continued, looking up to me with that peculiar archness which indicated that she had a plan to propose.“Have you, indeed? Well, that is not very remarkable.”“I don’t know that it is; but why don’t you ask me what I have been thinking about?”“Well, my dear, what have you been thinking about?”“I’ll tell you, since you ask,” laughed she. “We haven’t had anything like a house-warming yet.”“We have not. That was a great oversight. We will invite our friends, and have some nuts and raisins.”“Nuts and raisins! And be called mean by everybody!”“Well, what do you propose?” I inquired, though I was rather appalled at the idea of paying the bills for a large party.“I don’t know; but if we invite all our friends, we must not be mean about it. Besides, I hope mother will come, and then we shall be able to make it all up.”“I hope she will.”We proceeded to discuss the details of the house-warming. Lilian thought it would be cheaper and more stylish to have Smith take charge of the whole thing. He would provide all the eatables, and place a cream-colored waiter in white cotton gloves in the hall to open the door for the guests. She thought it would be more “re-church-y,” and, of course, I could not stand up against this tremendous argument. As I was busy at the bank, she would call and see Smith herself the next forenoon.She had just been restored to me, and I could not deny her anything. I think it would have broken her heart to know that I was up to my ears in debt; that I could not afford to pay Smith for even a moderate thing in his line. I ought to have told her the truth, the whole truth, but I had not the courage to do so. I knew very well that the life we had been living at her mother’s was just as distasteful and disagreeable to her as to me. She had consented to it for her mother’ssake, and had been a martyr since the day we returned from our bridal tour. I need not say that she was fond of style and show, and she had deprived herself of all these luxuries for the benefit of her family. The chain was broken, and the first thing was a party.I could not help myself without being a tyrant. Smith’s bill at the outside could not be over a hundred dollars, and that would not kill me for once. It occurred to me that I would limit the expenses to one hundred dollars, but I did not see how they could exceed this sum; so I decided to let Lilian manage the whole affair to suit herself. I have no doubt she would have done very well, and that the result would have been satisfactory to me, but unfortunately my wife’s ideas were different from mine. By an act of grace on the part of a very wealthy gentleman to whom I had been able to render some service, we were invited to a great birthday party of his daughter, shortly after our marriage. Lilian’s pretty face and graceful figure made her a great favorite among the gentlemen, and she made quite a sensation. Of course I was proud of her and Lilian deemed it the most fortunate thing in the world to obtain theentreeof such company.It never occurred to me that Lilian would attempt to imitate the style of my wealthy friend, or to invite any of the acquaintances she had made there. She knew that I was a bank-teller, on a salary of two thousand dollars, and of course she could not think of competing with amillionaire. I went to the bank the next day, and Lilian went to Smith’s. While I was looking at the morning paper, Buckleton appeared. He did not seem to have the same suavity which had distinguished him at my house. On the contrary, he was rather stiff and decided in his manner. I told him it was quite impossible for me to pay the bill at present.“Glasswood, I must be square about this business. Things were not exactly as I supposed, when I sold you those goods. I must have the money or security for the debt at once.”I was mad. Some one had been talking to him about me, and he had listened to the foe rather than to me.“You seem to be putting a different face upon the affair. Yesterday you were short; to-day you are afraid of losing the money,” I replied, coldly.“I only want to know what you are going to do.”“You told me to pay for the goods when it was convenient. If you had not said so, I should not have bought them.”“Give me a mortgage on the furniture in your house, and I will wait any reasonable time.”“I won’t do it!” I replied, angrily.“Very well; we needn’t talk any more about it.”“You professed to be my friend, and were willing to accommodate me.”“Circumstances alter cases. I have different information now.”“What information have you?” I demanded.“I am not at liberty to say. I never betray any man’s confidence. You are living beyond your means. I am willing to do anything that’s fair, but I must have the money or the security.”“I’ll see you after bank hours to-day.”“Perhaps you will,” said he, leaving the bank very abruptly.Who had been talking to this man? I never knew, but I am forced to acknowledge now, what I did not believe then, that his information was correct. I was vexed and disconcerted, and as the forenoon wore away, and my wrath abated, I concluded to give him the mortgage on myhousehold furniture. This matter was so absorbing that I hardly thought of the four hundred dollars I owed the bank till the memorandum I had put in the drawer attracted my attention. I do not know why I tore it up and threw it into the waste-basket, but I did so.Mr. Bristlebach was very gentle towards me; so was the cashier; and I was confident that no one suspected my cash was four hundred short. The late inquiry into the condition of my department, instead of securing the bank, had opened the way for my first irregularity. I went on with my duties until about one o’clock, when I was not a little astonished to see Biddy come into the bank. My heart rose into my mouth. I was afraid that something had happened to Lilian, and that she was dead or very sick. But Biddy only handed me a note, instead of making the scene I had anticipated.The note appeared to have been very hastily written, and was not in Lilian’s usually careful style. My name was scrawled hastily on the envelope. It occurred to me that Smith might have disappointed her, but I feared something worse than this. I tore open the note. The letter covered two pages, and it was evidently writtenunder great excitement. I was alarmed, and hardly dared to read it, lest it should inform me that one of her family was dead.I did read it, and it went on to tell me that, while she was away at Smith’s, a deputy sheriff had come to the house and attached all the furniture, and left a man there who called himself a “keeper.” She had talked with this man, and he had told her Mr. Buckleton was the person who had caused the goods to be attached. These were the material statements of the letter, to which Lilian added that the matter was “horrid;” that she never felt so strangely before in her life. She wanted to know if I really owed Mr. Buckleton a thousand dollars.I was almost stunned by this heavy blow. Some observations I dropped in regard to Buckleton were not complimentary to that individual. I could not stop to think then. The first business was to quiet Lilian, and I wrote her a note, saying that Buckleton had taken offence at something I had said; that the affair was a mere trifle, and I would send the man away with a flea in his ear when I went home to dinner. I sent Biddy off with this note.A keeper in my house! What could I do?
CHAPTER XII.A KEEPER IN THE HOUSE.LILIAN opened the door, and kissed me as usual when I came home.“Why, Paley, you have been drinking,” whispered she.“I had a severe pain, and took a glass of whiskey. I feel fetter now,” I replied.“There’s a gentleman waiting for you in the sitting-room,” she added.“Yes, I saw him. It is Buckleton, an old friend of mine. I may ask him to dine with us.”I think Lilian suspected something was wrong with me, though I am sure she had not the remotest conception of the nature and extent of the mischief which was gathering around us. Probably the smell of my breath startled her, with the added fact that I was a little flighty in my manner, for I believe that nothing can be more justly startling to a woman than the possibility of her husband becoming a drunkard. She knew nothing whatever of my financial affairs. Ihad never made her my confidant; on the contrary, I had weakly and foolishly assumed to be “full of money,” and behaved with a liberality and extravagance far beyond my means.Buckleton was waiting for me. I owed Buckleton eight hundred dollars, for which he had no security. What did Buckleton want with me? It had been his own proposition to give me, under a liberal interpretation of his own words, unlimited credit as to time, if not amount. Why had he come to my house? I had been at the bank all the forenoon, and that was the proper place to meet a man in relation to business. Of course if I had not owed him eight hundred dollars, I should not have troubled my head about this particular visit of an old acquaintance.However, I had drank two glasses of whiskey, and the circumstance of his coming did not trouble me much. I still felt light-hearted, and was not disposed to let anything trouble me much or long. I smoothed down my hair, and after drinking a glass of ice-water in the dining-room, which my parched tongue required, I entered the room where Buckleton was waiting for me. He was as cordial as though he had come only as an old friend. But exhilarated as I was, I could not fail to noticea certain constraint on his part, as though his cordiality was in a measure forced.He was glad to see me. He had business at the South End, and thought he would call in upon me as he was passing. The messenger at the bank told me, the next day, he had been there to find me ten minutes after I left. But his coming at this particular time, he labored to represent, was purely an accident. He was glad to see me so well situated. He hoped I should call on him at the West End with Mrs. Glasswood. He had not had the pleasure of knowing my wife, but he hoped to make her acquaintance. All these things he said with the utmost suavity, and then rose from the sofa to take his leave; but he did not take it, and I knew he did not intend to do so until he had said something about the little matter of eight hundred dollars that I owed him. He had his hat in his hand, and moved toward the door.“Stay and dine with me, Buckleton,” I interposed. “Dinner is all ready, and I should be delighted to have you.”“Thank you! Thank you! I should be glad to do so, but I have to meet a gentleman at the store in half an hour,” he replied, consulting his watch.“Let him wait; you needn’t be over half an hour behind time.”“I can’t do that, for the fact is he owes me some money, and I am desperately short just now.”Bah! I had given him the opportunity to say that, and it was now an easy step for him to dun me.“Well, come up next Sunday, won’t you? And bring your wife with you. We shall be delighted to see you,” I continued, hoping to throw him off the track.“I will, if possible; but I often find that Mrs. Buckleton has made engagements for me, and, if I remember rightly, her father and mother dine with us next Sunday. Besides, I have been so annoyed with business matters for a week, that I have not felt much like going into company. I expected a remittance of six thousand dollars from Havana, and learned the other day that the party had stopped payment. I don’t know what we shall do to meet our own notes. By the way, Glasswood, would it be perfectly convenient for you to pay the amount you owe us in a few days?”“It would not be perfectly convenient,” I replied, squarely.“I know very well that I proposed to wait forit, but, you see, this confounded Cuban affair throws us all out of groove; and we are in hot water up to the eyes. Isn’t it possible for you to pay it?”“Perhaps it is possible, but it would be deused inconvenient. You know I should not have bought so largely if you had not suggested that I might pay for the goods in my own time.”“We sold you, as you are aware, at the very lowest cash prices,” he added.I was not aware of it, but I did not deem it wise to open any controversy on a subject so insignificant.“I don’t see how I can do a thing for you, Buckleton, at present.”“It would be a very great accommodation if you could. Half would be better than nothing, though we want every dollar we can possibly raise. I will discount five per cent. for cash.”“That’s liberal, but it won’t help me much.”“Think it over, and see what you can do for me, Glasswood. I am in a tight place.”“I am sorry for it, but I haven’t got quite settled yet. I shall be able to pay you in a couple of months.”“I may be in bankruptcy before that time,” saidhe, with a grim smile. “I will call and see you to-morrow morning at the bank.”He went away. I thought I was inclined to stretch the truth quite enough in making out a case, but I could not equal him. He was in no more danger of failing than our bank was. The Cuban matter was a myth. I was satisfied that he had been examining into the condition of my credit. It was more than probable that he had heard rumors of my little difficulty at the bank, and had not heard of the triumphant conclusion of the affair. Shaytop had been whispering in his ear. Very likely my uncle had hinted that I was living too fast. Certainly some persons had been busy with matters which, in my estimation, did not concern them. I was indignant, and felt that I had been abused. Let me say to young gentlemen that shrewd business men usually know us better than we know ourselves, and see sooner than we which way we are going.Lilian was waiting for me in the dining-room. Of course she wished to know “what that man wanted;” and I turned off the affair as best I could. I sat down, and for a sick man who found it necessary to take medicine, I ate a very hearty dinner.“Well, my dear, how do you like the house, and housekeeping?” I said, in order to turn the subject from “that man.”“Very much, indeed, Paley. The only draw-back is that mother feels so badly about it.”“O, well! she will get over it in a few days.”“Do you know, Paley, that I have been thinking of something?” she continued, looking up to me with that peculiar archness which indicated that she had a plan to propose.“Have you, indeed? Well, that is not very remarkable.”“I don’t know that it is; but why don’t you ask me what I have been thinking about?”“Well, my dear, what have you been thinking about?”“I’ll tell you, since you ask,” laughed she. “We haven’t had anything like a house-warming yet.”“We have not. That was a great oversight. We will invite our friends, and have some nuts and raisins.”“Nuts and raisins! And be called mean by everybody!”“Well, what do you propose?” I inquired, though I was rather appalled at the idea of paying the bills for a large party.“I don’t know; but if we invite all our friends, we must not be mean about it. Besides, I hope mother will come, and then we shall be able to make it all up.”“I hope she will.”We proceeded to discuss the details of the house-warming. Lilian thought it would be cheaper and more stylish to have Smith take charge of the whole thing. He would provide all the eatables, and place a cream-colored waiter in white cotton gloves in the hall to open the door for the guests. She thought it would be more “re-church-y,” and, of course, I could not stand up against this tremendous argument. As I was busy at the bank, she would call and see Smith herself the next forenoon.She had just been restored to me, and I could not deny her anything. I think it would have broken her heart to know that I was up to my ears in debt; that I could not afford to pay Smith for even a moderate thing in his line. I ought to have told her the truth, the whole truth, but I had not the courage to do so. I knew very well that the life we had been living at her mother’s was just as distasteful and disagreeable to her as to me. She had consented to it for her mother’ssake, and had been a martyr since the day we returned from our bridal tour. I need not say that she was fond of style and show, and she had deprived herself of all these luxuries for the benefit of her family. The chain was broken, and the first thing was a party.I could not help myself without being a tyrant. Smith’s bill at the outside could not be over a hundred dollars, and that would not kill me for once. It occurred to me that I would limit the expenses to one hundred dollars, but I did not see how they could exceed this sum; so I decided to let Lilian manage the whole affair to suit herself. I have no doubt she would have done very well, and that the result would have been satisfactory to me, but unfortunately my wife’s ideas were different from mine. By an act of grace on the part of a very wealthy gentleman to whom I had been able to render some service, we were invited to a great birthday party of his daughter, shortly after our marriage. Lilian’s pretty face and graceful figure made her a great favorite among the gentlemen, and she made quite a sensation. Of course I was proud of her and Lilian deemed it the most fortunate thing in the world to obtain theentreeof such company.It never occurred to me that Lilian would attempt to imitate the style of my wealthy friend, or to invite any of the acquaintances she had made there. She knew that I was a bank-teller, on a salary of two thousand dollars, and of course she could not think of competing with amillionaire. I went to the bank the next day, and Lilian went to Smith’s. While I was looking at the morning paper, Buckleton appeared. He did not seem to have the same suavity which had distinguished him at my house. On the contrary, he was rather stiff and decided in his manner. I told him it was quite impossible for me to pay the bill at present.“Glasswood, I must be square about this business. Things were not exactly as I supposed, when I sold you those goods. I must have the money or security for the debt at once.”I was mad. Some one had been talking to him about me, and he had listened to the foe rather than to me.“You seem to be putting a different face upon the affair. Yesterday you were short; to-day you are afraid of losing the money,” I replied, coldly.“I only want to know what you are going to do.”“You told me to pay for the goods when it was convenient. If you had not said so, I should not have bought them.”“Give me a mortgage on the furniture in your house, and I will wait any reasonable time.”“I won’t do it!” I replied, angrily.“Very well; we needn’t talk any more about it.”“You professed to be my friend, and were willing to accommodate me.”“Circumstances alter cases. I have different information now.”“What information have you?” I demanded.“I am not at liberty to say. I never betray any man’s confidence. You are living beyond your means. I am willing to do anything that’s fair, but I must have the money or the security.”“I’ll see you after bank hours to-day.”“Perhaps you will,” said he, leaving the bank very abruptly.Who had been talking to this man? I never knew, but I am forced to acknowledge now, what I did not believe then, that his information was correct. I was vexed and disconcerted, and as the forenoon wore away, and my wrath abated, I concluded to give him the mortgage on myhousehold furniture. This matter was so absorbing that I hardly thought of the four hundred dollars I owed the bank till the memorandum I had put in the drawer attracted my attention. I do not know why I tore it up and threw it into the waste-basket, but I did so.Mr. Bristlebach was very gentle towards me; so was the cashier; and I was confident that no one suspected my cash was four hundred short. The late inquiry into the condition of my department, instead of securing the bank, had opened the way for my first irregularity. I went on with my duties until about one o’clock, when I was not a little astonished to see Biddy come into the bank. My heart rose into my mouth. I was afraid that something had happened to Lilian, and that she was dead or very sick. But Biddy only handed me a note, instead of making the scene I had anticipated.The note appeared to have been very hastily written, and was not in Lilian’s usually careful style. My name was scrawled hastily on the envelope. It occurred to me that Smith might have disappointed her, but I feared something worse than this. I tore open the note. The letter covered two pages, and it was evidently writtenunder great excitement. I was alarmed, and hardly dared to read it, lest it should inform me that one of her family was dead.I did read it, and it went on to tell me that, while she was away at Smith’s, a deputy sheriff had come to the house and attached all the furniture, and left a man there who called himself a “keeper.” She had talked with this man, and he had told her Mr. Buckleton was the person who had caused the goods to be attached. These were the material statements of the letter, to which Lilian added that the matter was “horrid;” that she never felt so strangely before in her life. She wanted to know if I really owed Mr. Buckleton a thousand dollars.I was almost stunned by this heavy blow. Some observations I dropped in regard to Buckleton were not complimentary to that individual. I could not stop to think then. The first business was to quiet Lilian, and I wrote her a note, saying that Buckleton had taken offence at something I had said; that the affair was a mere trifle, and I would send the man away with a flea in his ear when I went home to dinner. I sent Biddy off with this note.A keeper in my house! What could I do?
A KEEPER IN THE HOUSE.
LILIAN opened the door, and kissed me as usual when I came home.
“Why, Paley, you have been drinking,” whispered she.
“I had a severe pain, and took a glass of whiskey. I feel fetter now,” I replied.
“There’s a gentleman waiting for you in the sitting-room,” she added.
“Yes, I saw him. It is Buckleton, an old friend of mine. I may ask him to dine with us.”
I think Lilian suspected something was wrong with me, though I am sure she had not the remotest conception of the nature and extent of the mischief which was gathering around us. Probably the smell of my breath startled her, with the added fact that I was a little flighty in my manner, for I believe that nothing can be more justly startling to a woman than the possibility of her husband becoming a drunkard. She knew nothing whatever of my financial affairs. Ihad never made her my confidant; on the contrary, I had weakly and foolishly assumed to be “full of money,” and behaved with a liberality and extravagance far beyond my means.
Buckleton was waiting for me. I owed Buckleton eight hundred dollars, for which he had no security. What did Buckleton want with me? It had been his own proposition to give me, under a liberal interpretation of his own words, unlimited credit as to time, if not amount. Why had he come to my house? I had been at the bank all the forenoon, and that was the proper place to meet a man in relation to business. Of course if I had not owed him eight hundred dollars, I should not have troubled my head about this particular visit of an old acquaintance.
However, I had drank two glasses of whiskey, and the circumstance of his coming did not trouble me much. I still felt light-hearted, and was not disposed to let anything trouble me much or long. I smoothed down my hair, and after drinking a glass of ice-water in the dining-room, which my parched tongue required, I entered the room where Buckleton was waiting for me. He was as cordial as though he had come only as an old friend. But exhilarated as I was, I could not fail to noticea certain constraint on his part, as though his cordiality was in a measure forced.
He was glad to see me. He had business at the South End, and thought he would call in upon me as he was passing. The messenger at the bank told me, the next day, he had been there to find me ten minutes after I left. But his coming at this particular time, he labored to represent, was purely an accident. He was glad to see me so well situated. He hoped I should call on him at the West End with Mrs. Glasswood. He had not had the pleasure of knowing my wife, but he hoped to make her acquaintance. All these things he said with the utmost suavity, and then rose from the sofa to take his leave; but he did not take it, and I knew he did not intend to do so until he had said something about the little matter of eight hundred dollars that I owed him. He had his hat in his hand, and moved toward the door.
“Stay and dine with me, Buckleton,” I interposed. “Dinner is all ready, and I should be delighted to have you.”
“Thank you! Thank you! I should be glad to do so, but I have to meet a gentleman at the store in half an hour,” he replied, consulting his watch.
“Let him wait; you needn’t be over half an hour behind time.”
“I can’t do that, for the fact is he owes me some money, and I am desperately short just now.”
Bah! I had given him the opportunity to say that, and it was now an easy step for him to dun me.
“Well, come up next Sunday, won’t you? And bring your wife with you. We shall be delighted to see you,” I continued, hoping to throw him off the track.
“I will, if possible; but I often find that Mrs. Buckleton has made engagements for me, and, if I remember rightly, her father and mother dine with us next Sunday. Besides, I have been so annoyed with business matters for a week, that I have not felt much like going into company. I expected a remittance of six thousand dollars from Havana, and learned the other day that the party had stopped payment. I don’t know what we shall do to meet our own notes. By the way, Glasswood, would it be perfectly convenient for you to pay the amount you owe us in a few days?”
“It would not be perfectly convenient,” I replied, squarely.
“I know very well that I proposed to wait forit, but, you see, this confounded Cuban affair throws us all out of groove; and we are in hot water up to the eyes. Isn’t it possible for you to pay it?”
“Perhaps it is possible, but it would be deused inconvenient. You know I should not have bought so largely if you had not suggested that I might pay for the goods in my own time.”
“We sold you, as you are aware, at the very lowest cash prices,” he added.
I was not aware of it, but I did not deem it wise to open any controversy on a subject so insignificant.
“I don’t see how I can do a thing for you, Buckleton, at present.”
“It would be a very great accommodation if you could. Half would be better than nothing, though we want every dollar we can possibly raise. I will discount five per cent. for cash.”
“That’s liberal, but it won’t help me much.”
“Think it over, and see what you can do for me, Glasswood. I am in a tight place.”
“I am sorry for it, but I haven’t got quite settled yet. I shall be able to pay you in a couple of months.”
“I may be in bankruptcy before that time,” saidhe, with a grim smile. “I will call and see you to-morrow morning at the bank.”
He went away. I thought I was inclined to stretch the truth quite enough in making out a case, but I could not equal him. He was in no more danger of failing than our bank was. The Cuban matter was a myth. I was satisfied that he had been examining into the condition of my credit. It was more than probable that he had heard rumors of my little difficulty at the bank, and had not heard of the triumphant conclusion of the affair. Shaytop had been whispering in his ear. Very likely my uncle had hinted that I was living too fast. Certainly some persons had been busy with matters which, in my estimation, did not concern them. I was indignant, and felt that I had been abused. Let me say to young gentlemen that shrewd business men usually know us better than we know ourselves, and see sooner than we which way we are going.
Lilian was waiting for me in the dining-room. Of course she wished to know “what that man wanted;” and I turned off the affair as best I could. I sat down, and for a sick man who found it necessary to take medicine, I ate a very hearty dinner.
“Well, my dear, how do you like the house, and housekeeping?” I said, in order to turn the subject from “that man.”
“Very much, indeed, Paley. The only draw-back is that mother feels so badly about it.”
“O, well! she will get over it in a few days.”
“Do you know, Paley, that I have been thinking of something?” she continued, looking up to me with that peculiar archness which indicated that she had a plan to propose.
“Have you, indeed? Well, that is not very remarkable.”
“I don’t know that it is; but why don’t you ask me what I have been thinking about?”
“Well, my dear, what have you been thinking about?”
“I’ll tell you, since you ask,” laughed she. “We haven’t had anything like a house-warming yet.”
“We have not. That was a great oversight. We will invite our friends, and have some nuts and raisins.”
“Nuts and raisins! And be called mean by everybody!”
“Well, what do you propose?” I inquired, though I was rather appalled at the idea of paying the bills for a large party.
“I don’t know; but if we invite all our friends, we must not be mean about it. Besides, I hope mother will come, and then we shall be able to make it all up.”
“I hope she will.”
We proceeded to discuss the details of the house-warming. Lilian thought it would be cheaper and more stylish to have Smith take charge of the whole thing. He would provide all the eatables, and place a cream-colored waiter in white cotton gloves in the hall to open the door for the guests. She thought it would be more “re-church-y,” and, of course, I could not stand up against this tremendous argument. As I was busy at the bank, she would call and see Smith herself the next forenoon.
She had just been restored to me, and I could not deny her anything. I think it would have broken her heart to know that I was up to my ears in debt; that I could not afford to pay Smith for even a moderate thing in his line. I ought to have told her the truth, the whole truth, but I had not the courage to do so. I knew very well that the life we had been living at her mother’s was just as distasteful and disagreeable to her as to me. She had consented to it for her mother’ssake, and had been a martyr since the day we returned from our bridal tour. I need not say that she was fond of style and show, and she had deprived herself of all these luxuries for the benefit of her family. The chain was broken, and the first thing was a party.
I could not help myself without being a tyrant. Smith’s bill at the outside could not be over a hundred dollars, and that would not kill me for once. It occurred to me that I would limit the expenses to one hundred dollars, but I did not see how they could exceed this sum; so I decided to let Lilian manage the whole affair to suit herself. I have no doubt she would have done very well, and that the result would have been satisfactory to me, but unfortunately my wife’s ideas were different from mine. By an act of grace on the part of a very wealthy gentleman to whom I had been able to render some service, we were invited to a great birthday party of his daughter, shortly after our marriage. Lilian’s pretty face and graceful figure made her a great favorite among the gentlemen, and she made quite a sensation. Of course I was proud of her and Lilian deemed it the most fortunate thing in the world to obtain theentreeof such company.
It never occurred to me that Lilian would attempt to imitate the style of my wealthy friend, or to invite any of the acquaintances she had made there. She knew that I was a bank-teller, on a salary of two thousand dollars, and of course she could not think of competing with amillionaire. I went to the bank the next day, and Lilian went to Smith’s. While I was looking at the morning paper, Buckleton appeared. He did not seem to have the same suavity which had distinguished him at my house. On the contrary, he was rather stiff and decided in his manner. I told him it was quite impossible for me to pay the bill at present.
“Glasswood, I must be square about this business. Things were not exactly as I supposed, when I sold you those goods. I must have the money or security for the debt at once.”
I was mad. Some one had been talking to him about me, and he had listened to the foe rather than to me.
“You seem to be putting a different face upon the affair. Yesterday you were short; to-day you are afraid of losing the money,” I replied, coldly.
“I only want to know what you are going to do.”
“You told me to pay for the goods when it was convenient. If you had not said so, I should not have bought them.”
“Give me a mortgage on the furniture in your house, and I will wait any reasonable time.”
“I won’t do it!” I replied, angrily.
“Very well; we needn’t talk any more about it.”
“You professed to be my friend, and were willing to accommodate me.”
“Circumstances alter cases. I have different information now.”
“What information have you?” I demanded.
“I am not at liberty to say. I never betray any man’s confidence. You are living beyond your means. I am willing to do anything that’s fair, but I must have the money or the security.”
“I’ll see you after bank hours to-day.”
“Perhaps you will,” said he, leaving the bank very abruptly.
Who had been talking to this man? I never knew, but I am forced to acknowledge now, what I did not believe then, that his information was correct. I was vexed and disconcerted, and as the forenoon wore away, and my wrath abated, I concluded to give him the mortgage on myhousehold furniture. This matter was so absorbing that I hardly thought of the four hundred dollars I owed the bank till the memorandum I had put in the drawer attracted my attention. I do not know why I tore it up and threw it into the waste-basket, but I did so.
Mr. Bristlebach was very gentle towards me; so was the cashier; and I was confident that no one suspected my cash was four hundred short. The late inquiry into the condition of my department, instead of securing the bank, had opened the way for my first irregularity. I went on with my duties until about one o’clock, when I was not a little astonished to see Biddy come into the bank. My heart rose into my mouth. I was afraid that something had happened to Lilian, and that she was dead or very sick. But Biddy only handed me a note, instead of making the scene I had anticipated.
The note appeared to have been very hastily written, and was not in Lilian’s usually careful style. My name was scrawled hastily on the envelope. It occurred to me that Smith might have disappointed her, but I feared something worse than this. I tore open the note. The letter covered two pages, and it was evidently writtenunder great excitement. I was alarmed, and hardly dared to read it, lest it should inform me that one of her family was dead.
I did read it, and it went on to tell me that, while she was away at Smith’s, a deputy sheriff had come to the house and attached all the furniture, and left a man there who called himself a “keeper.” She had talked with this man, and he had told her Mr. Buckleton was the person who had caused the goods to be attached. These were the material statements of the letter, to which Lilian added that the matter was “horrid;” that she never felt so strangely before in her life. She wanted to know if I really owed Mr. Buckleton a thousand dollars.
I was almost stunned by this heavy blow. Some observations I dropped in regard to Buckleton were not complimentary to that individual. I could not stop to think then. The first business was to quiet Lilian, and I wrote her a note, saying that Buckleton had taken offence at something I had said; that the affair was a mere trifle, and I would send the man away with a flea in his ear when I went home to dinner. I sent Biddy off with this note.
A keeper in my house! What could I do?