E-text prepared by MFR and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 56813-h.htm or 56813-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56813/56813-h/56813-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56813/56813-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/morestoriesofmar00cuttuoft More Stories of Married Life [Illustration: Clasp him to her breast (Page 84)] MORE STORIES OF MARRIED LIFE by MARY STEWART CUTTING New York McClure, Phillips & Co. Mcmvi Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co. Published March, 1906 Copyright, 1903, 1904, 1905, by The S. S. McClure Co. Copyright, 1902, 1903, by Perry Mason Company Copyright, 1904, by The Curtis Publishing Company Copyright, 1906, by The Butterick Publishing Company Contents PAGE A Little Surprise 1 At the Sign of the Rubber Plant 29 The Terminal 53 The Hinge 77 A Symphony in Coal 101 The Triumph of Father 135 The Portion of the Youngest 155 Polly Townsend’s Rebellion 185 The Mother of Emily 207 Madonna of the Toys: A Christmas Story 227 The Name of the Firm 243 A Little Surprise A Little Surprise Anita Gibbons has been waiting outside at the station on the bench nearest the field since twenty minutes of six, and it was now nearly seven as she rose to go. The bright pleasure with which she had started out was fled: he had not come. The sun, wind, and reform of the spring afternoon, in combination with a becoming new suit and hat, had produced their annual effect of inspiring her to surprise her husband by meeting him on his return from town, that they might walk home bridally together in the sweet evening daylight. She had been hitherto undeterred by remembrance of the historic fact that Mr. Gibbons was never known to come on time when thus pleasurably expected; but memory was beginning to chill her now, as well as the wind on her back. She had done all this before! Yet what business unknown this morning; could have kept him? It was neither the first nor the last of the month, always mysterious days of threatened detention. He had not passed her by unnoticed, for she had risen as each train came in to scan the men who dropped on to the platform and hurried off, some of them looking back to raise their hats to the pretty woman on the platform.