you clearly see me in error, to balance that error by declining to act passively with me. This I hope you will do."

Anna was humble minded, and it pained her to hear such remarks from her husband, for whose moral and intellectual character she had the highest regard, while of herself she thought with meekness.

"Tell me, dear," Hartley said, after some time, "what is your objection to my plan of furnishing our house?"

"Mainly to the expense."

"Do you

think it would cost more than if we attended

to it ourselves?"

"It would, probably, cost double, and not be arranged more perfectly, so far as comfort and convenience are concerned, than if we were to do it ourselves."

"I don't understand how that could be."

"Your cabinet-maker and upholsterer would wish to know if you wanted everything of the best; and you would assent. The best would be, no doubt in their estimation, the costliest. I saw a house once furnished in this way-a house not larger than the one we have taken. How much do you think it cost?

"How much?"

"Nine hundred pounds."

"Indeed!"

"Yes. And I would agree to furnish a house with just as many comforts and conveniences on half the money."

Hartley's eyes were cast thoughtfully on the floor.

It was some moments before anything more was said. The wife was first to speak. She did so in a timid, hesitating voice.

"Had we not better understand each other fully at once?" she said.

። "By all means. The quicker we do so the better. Is there anything in which we do not fully understand each other?"

"Before we take another step, ought not I, as your wife, to know exactly how you stand with the world in a business and pecuniary relation? I feel that this is a very delicate subject for a wife to introduce. But can I know how to be governed in my desires if I do not know to what extent they can be safely gratified?"

"I trust there is no desire that you can entertain, dear Anna, that I am not able and willing to gratify." "That is altogether too vague," replied Mrs Hartley, forcing a smile. "As your wife, I shall regulate the expense of your household. I wish to do so wisely; and in order to this it is necessary for me to have some idea of your probable income."

"It ought to be between four and five hundred pounds a-year; and will be, unless some unforeseen events transpire to affect our business."

Hartley seemed to say this with reluctance. And he did so really. The inquiry grated on his feelings. It seemed to him that Anna should have felt confidence enough in him to believe that he would not propose any expenditure of money beyond what was prudent. He would hardly have thought in this way if he had not actually proposed the very thing he tacitly condemned her for

suspecting that he had done. He was not, really, so well established in the world as to be able to rent a house at a high rent, and furnish it in a costly style; nor even to give a carte blanche to a cabinet-maker and upholsterer to fit up, according to their ideas, the house he had decided to occupy.

The moment he allowed himself to think thus of his honest-minded wife, he felt an inward coldness toward her, which was perceived as quickly in her heart, as it was felt in his.

Conscious that Anna thus perceived his feelings, and unable, at the same time, to rise above them, and think with generous approval of her motives, he did not, for some time, make any effort to lift her up from the unhappy state into which she had fallen. One unkind thought was the creater of others.

"What can she mean ?" he allowed himself to ask. "Is it possible that she has imagined I was rich; and now, a doubt having crossed her mind, can she be trying to find out the exact state of my affairs? I never could have dreamed this!"

Both their eyes were cast upon the floor. They sat silent, with hearts heavily oppressed; he suffering accusation after accusation to flow into his mind, and lodge there; and she deeply distressed, from a consciousness of having been misunderstood in a matter that she felt to be of great importance, and which she had endeavoured to approach with the utmost delicacy.

Some minutes passed, when better feelings produced better thoughts in the mind of James Hartley. He saw that he had been ungenerous, even cruel in his suspicions.

He imagined himself in her situation, and felt how deeply her heart must be wounded.

"She is right," he said, inwardly, lifting his head, with the intention of saying that which should at once relieve Anna's mind. The first thing that met his eye was a tear falling upon her hand. His feelings reacted strongly. Drawing an arm quickly about her neck, he pressed her head against his bosom, and, bending over, murmured in her ear

"I am not worthy of so good a wife as you, dear Anna! What evil has possessed me, that I, who love you so truly, should be the one to make you unhappy? Surely I have been beside myself!"

Anna released herself quickly from the arm that had been thrown around her neck, and turned up to the eyes of her husband a tearful, serious, but not unhappy face.

66 Oh, James! dear James!" she said, in a low, earnest, eloquent voice. "Why do you speak so? I am only weak and foolish. It is enough that we love truly. If we find it a little difficult, at first, to understand each other fully, it is no great wonder. Love, true love, will in the end harmonize all differences, and make plain to each the other's heart. Let us be patient and for

bearing."

"What you are; but I have much to learn, and you shall be my tutor."

Hartley again kissed his bride; but she looked serious. "Not so," she returned. "It is to your intelligence that I am to look for guidance. I am to learn of you, not you of me."

"Never mind," was smilingly replied, by Hartley.

"We will reverse the order for a time, until my intelligence of domestic affairs is laid upon a truer basis than it seems now to be. But I think there will be no harm in our deferring all the matters now under consideration until to-morrow. Both of us will then be able to see more clearly, feel less acutely, and determine more wisely. Do you not think so ?"

Anna gave a cheerful assent to this, and the subject of conversation was changed.

CHAPTER IV.-ALL RIGHT AGAIN.

CONSCIOUS that he had wronged Anna in thought as well as in feeling, Hartley's words, tones, and actions expressed towards her the tenderness that this consciousness awoke in his bosom. By every little art in his power he strove to obliterate from her mind a recollection of what had passed.

As for Anna, she was grieved to find that her wellmeant, indeed her conscientious efforts, had been misunderstood. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for her to remain passive, and let her husband make all arrangements as his taste might dictate. But would this be right? That question she could not answer in the affirmative.

"Twice

"He will think me self-willed," she said. already have I opposed his wishes, and how can he help feeling that I do this from an innate love of having things only my own way? Oh, if he but knew my heart! If