132 TRUE RICHES; OR,

 

‘‘T have feared as much,” was the low, half-tremu-
lous response.

“And yet, if I do not send, the very omission may
excite a question, and produce the consequences we
fear.”

“True, Edward. All that has passed through my
mind over and over again.”

‘What had we better do ?”’

“Ah!” sighed Edith, “if we only knew that.”

‘¢Shall I send the order, as usual ?”’

Edith shook her head, saying—

‘“T’m afraid.”

‘“¢ And I hesitate with the same fear.”’

“And yet, Edith,” said Claire, who, as the pro-
vider for the family, pondered more anxiously the
question of ways and means, “what are we to do?
Our income, with Fanny’s board added, is but just
sufficient. Take away three hundred dollars a year,
and where will westand? The thought presses like
.a leaden weight on my feelings. Debt, or severe
privation, is inevitable. If, with eight hundred dol-
lars, we only come out even at the end of each year,
what will be the result if our income is suddenly re-
duced to five hundred?”

‘‘Let us do what is right, Edward,” said his wife,
laying her hand upon his arm, and looking into his
face in her earnest, peculiar way. Her voice, though
it slightly trembled, had in it a tone of confidence,
which, with the words she had spoken, gave to the
wavering heart of Claire an instant feeling of
strength.

“But what is right, Edith?” he asked.

‘We know not now,” was her reply, “but, if we