WEALTH WITHOUT WINGS. 35

 

These were his thoughts now, born of a quick re-
vulsion of feeling.

“Tt is your dinner-time, Edward. Get back as
soon as possible. I want to be home a little earlier
than usual to-day.”

Thus spoke Mr. Jasper ; and the young man,
taking up his hat, left the store. He had never felt
so strangely in his life. The first step in crime had
been taken; he had fairly entered the downward
road to ruin. Where was it all to end? Placing
his fingers, almost without thought, in his pocket,
they came in contact with the gold-piece obtained
by a double crime—the robbery both of a customer
and his employer. Quickly, as if he had touched a
living coal, was the hand of Claire withdrawn, while
a low chill crept along his nerves. It required some
resolution for the young man to meet his pure-
hearted, clear-minded wife, whose quick intuitions
of good or evil in others he had over and over again
been led to remark. , Once, as he moved along, he
thrust his hand into his pocket, with the suddenly-
formed purpose of casting the piece of money from
him, and thus cancelling his guilt. But, ere the
act was accomplished, he remembered that in this
there would be no restoration, and so refrained.

Edward Claire felt, while in the presence of his
young wife, that she often looked into his face with
more than usual earnestness. This not only embar-
rassed but slightly fretted him, and led him to speak
once in a way that brought tears to her eyes.

Not a minute longer than necessary did Claire
remain at home. The fact that his employer had
desired him to return to the store as quickly as pos-