“Yes, I am ready; I had a good breakfast. But you have had nothing all day. And for money, do you know Miss Hamper, the dressmaker, actually offered to lend me a shilling, and I took it. Here it is. You see, I was so sure you would bring money home that I thought we _might_ run that much farther into debt. So I got you two fresh eggs and such a lovely little white loaf. Besides, I have just thought of something else we could get a little money for--that dainty chemise my mother made for me with her own hands when we were going to be married. I will take it to the pawnbroker to-morrow.” “I was never in a pawnshop, Annie. I don’t think I should know how to set about it.” “_You!_” cried Annie, with a touch of scorn. “Do you think I would trust a man with it? No; that’s a woman’s work. Why, you would let the fellow offer you half it was worth--and you would take it too. I shall show it to Mrs. Whitmore: _she_ will know what I ought to get for it. She’s had to do the thing herself--too often, poor thing!” “It would be like tearing my heart out.” “What! to part with my pretty chemise. Hector, dear, you must not be foolish! What does it matter, so long as we are not cheating anybody? The pawnshop is a most honorable and useful institution. No one is the worse for it, and many a one the better. Even the tradespeople will be a trifle the better. I shall be quite proud to know that I have a pawn-ticket in my pocket to fall back upon. Oh, there’s that old silk dress your mother sent me--I do believe that would bring more. It is in good condition, and looks quite respectable. If Eve had got into a scrape like ours, she would have been helpless, poor thing, not having anything _to put away_--that is the right word, I believe. There is really nothing disgraceful about it. Come now, dear, and eat your eggs--I’m afraid you must do without butter. I always preferred a piece of dry bread with an egg--you get the true taste of the egg so much better. One day or another we must part with everything. It is sure to come. Sooner or later, what does that matter? ‘The readiness is all,’ as Hamlet says. Death, or the pawnshop, signifies nothing. ‘Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is it to leave betimes?’ We do but forestall the grave for one brief hour with the pawnshop.” “You deserve to have married Epictetus, Annie, you brave woman, instead of Xantippe!” “I prefer you, Hector.” “But what might you have said if he had asked you, and you had heard me bemoaning the pawnshop?” “Ah, then, indeed! But, in the meantime, we will go to bed and wait there for to-morrow. Is it not a lovely thing to know that God is thinking about you? He will bring us to _our desired haven_, Hector, dearest!” So in their sadness they laid them down. Annie opened her arms and took Hector to her bosom. There he sighed himself to sleep; and God put His arms about them both, and kept them asleep until the morning. And in this love, more than in bed, I rest.