The Road to UnderstandingPorter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
General
The Road to Understanding
Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
Marriage -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
Helen found she wanted not only the fruits and jelly, but several other
cans of soups, meats, and vegetables. And it was such a comfort, for
once, to select what she wanted, and not have to count up the money in
her purse! She was radiantly happy when she went home from market that
morning (instead of being tired and worried as was usually the case);
and the glow on her face lasted all through the day and into the
evening--so much so that even Burke must have noticed it, for he told
her he did not know when he had seen her looking so pretty. And he gave
her an extra kiss or two when he greeted her.
The second month of housekeeping proved to be a great improvement over
the first. It was early in that month that Helen learned the joy and
comfort of having "an account" at her grocer's. And she soon discovered
that not yet had she probed this delight to its depths, for not only the
grocer, but the fishman and the butcher were equally kind, and allowed
her to open accounts with them. Coincident with this came the discovery
that there were such institutions as bakeries and delicatessen shops,
which seemed to have been designed especially to meet the needs of just
such harassed little martyr housewives as she herself was; for in them
one might buy bread and cakes and pies and even salads and cold meats,
and fish balls. One might, indeed, with these delectable organizations
at hand, snap one's fingers at all the cookbooks in the world--cookbooks
that so miserably failed to cook!
The baker and the little Dutch delicatessen man, too (when they found
out who she was), expressed themselves as delighted to open an account;
and with the disagreeable necessity eliminated of paying on the spot for
what one ordered, and with so great an assortment of ready-to-eat foods
to select from, Helen found her meal-getting that second month a much
simpler matter.
Then, too, Helen was much happier now that she did not have to ask her
husband for money. She accepted what he gave her, and thanked him; but
she said nothing about her new method of finance.
"I'm going to keep it secret till the stores send him the bills," said
Helen to herself. "Then I'll show him what a lot I've saved from what he
has given me, and he'll be so glad to pay things all at once without
being bothered with my everlasting teasing!"
She only smiled, therefore, enigmatically, when he said one day, as he
passed over the money:--
"Jove, girl! I quite forgot. You must be getting low. But I'm glad you
didn't have to ask me for it, anyhow!"
Ask him for it, indeed! How pleased he would be when he found out that
she was never going to ask him for money again!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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