Detective and mystery stories; Stone, Fleming (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
“To the end of the rainbow--where there’s a pot of gold! You
read your spook books, and then go to bed and dream of ghosts and
specters!”
Eunice kissed her lightly, and gathering up her floating draperies, went
out of the room with the faithful and efficient Ferdinand.
On his way to the club, Embury pursued that pleasing occupation known as
nursing his wrath. He was sorry he had left Eunice in anger--he realized
it was the first time that had ever happened--and he was tempted to go
back, or, at least to telephone back, that he was sorry. But that would
do little good, he knew, unless he also said he was willing to accede to
her request for an allowance, and that he was as sternly set against as
ever.
He couldn’t quite have told himself why he was so positive in this
matter, but it was largely owing to an instinctive sense of the fitness
of having a wife dependent on her husband for all things. Moreover,
it seemed to him that unlimited charge accounts betokened a greater
generosity than an allowance, and he felt an aggrieved irritation at
Eunice’s seeming ingratitude.
The matter of her wanting “chicken-feed” now and then seemed to him
too petty to be worthy of serious consideration. He really believed that
he gave her money whenever she asked for it, and was all unaware how
hard he made it for her to ask.
The more he thought about it, the more he saw Eunice in the wrong, and
himself an injured, unappreciated benefactor.
He adored his wife, but this peculiarity of hers must be put an end
to somehow. Her temper, too, was becoming worse instead of better; her
outbreaks were more frequent, more furious, and he had less power to
quell them than formerly.
Clearly, he concluded, Eunice must be taught a lesson, and this occasion
must be made a test case. He had left her angrily, and it might turn out
that it was the best thing he could have done. Poor girl, she doubtless
was sorry enough by now; crying, probably. His heart softened as he
conjured up the picture of his wife alone, and in tears, but he reasoned
that it would do her good, and he would give her a new jewel to make up
for it, after the trouble was all over.
So he went on to the club, and dove into the great business of the last
possible chance of electioneering.
Though friendly through all this campaign, the strain was beginning to
tell on the two candidates, and both Embury and Hendricks found it a
little difficult to keep up their good feeling.
“But,” they both reasoned, “as soon as the election is over,
we’ll be all right again. We’re both too good sports to hold rancor,
or to feel any jealousy.”
And this was true. Men of the world, men of well-balanced minds, clever,
logical and just, they were fighting hard, each for his own side, but
once the matter was decided, they would be again the same old friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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