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Page 21
"My dear young friend!" said Mr. Melleville, visibly moved, "this is
dreadful!"
"It is dreadful. I can scarcely realize that it is so," replied
Claire, also exhibiting emotion.
"You ought not to remain in the employment of Leonard Jasper. That,
at least, is plain. Better, far better, to subsist on bread and water,
than to live sumptuously on the ill-gotten gold of such a man."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Melleville, I feel all the truth of what you affirm,
and am resolved to seek for another place. Did you not say, when
we parted two years ago, that if ever I wished to return, you would
endeavour to make an opening for me?"
"I did, Edward; and can readily bring you in now, as one of my young
men is going to leave me for a higher salary than I can afford to pay.
There is one drawback, however."
"What is that, Mr. Melleville?"
"The salary will be only four hundred dollars a year."
"I shall expect no more from you."
"But can you live on that sum now? Remember, that you have been
receiving five hundred dollars, and that your wants have been
graduated by your rate of income. Let me ask--have you saved any thing
since you were married?"
"Nothing."
"So much the worse. You will find it difficult to fall back upon a
reduced salary. How far can you rely on your wife's co-operation?"
"To the fullest extent. I have already suggested to her the change,
and she desires, above all things, that I make it."
"Does she understand the ground of this proposed change?" asked Mr.
Melleville.
"Clearly."
"And is willing to meet privation--to step down into even a humbler
sphere, so that her husband be removed from the tempting influence of
the god of this world?"
"She is, Mr. Melleville. Ah! I only wish that I could look upon life
as she does. That I could see as clearly--that I could gather, as she
is gathering them in her daily walk, the riches that have no wings."
"Thank God for such a treasure, Edward! She is worth more than the
wealth of the Indies. With such an angel to walk by your side, you
need feel no evil."
"You will give me a situation, then, Mr. Melleville?"
"Yes, Edward," replied the old man.
"Then I will notify Mr. Jasper this afternoon, and enter your service
on the first of the coming month. My heart is lighter already. Good
day."
And Edward hurried off home.
During the afternoon he found no opportunity to speak to Mr. Jasper
on the subject first in his thoughts, as that individual wished him
to attend Mrs. Elder's funeral, and gather for him all possible
information about the child. It was late when he came back from
the burial-ground--so late that he concluded not to return, on that
evening, to the store. In the carriage in which he rode, was the
clergyman who officiated, and the orphan child who, though but half
comprehending her loss, was yet overwhelmed with sorrow. On their way
back, the clergyman asked to be left at his own dwelling; and this was
done. Claire was then alone with the child, who shrank close to him in
the carriage. He did not speak to her; nor did she do more than lift,
now and then, her large, soft, tear-suffused eyes to his face.
Arrived, at length, at the dwelling from which they had just borne
forth the dead, Claire gently lifted out the child, and entered the
house with her. Two persons only were within, the domestic and the
woman who, on the day previous, had spoken of taking to her own home
the little orphaned one. The former had on her shawl and bonnet, and
said that she was about going away.
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