to come in and spend the
day at the big house. It was pleasant, for in dull weather Meg often
felt lonely. All were busy at home, John absent till night, and
nothing to do but sew, or read, or potter about. So it naturally fell
out that Meg got into the way of gadding and gossiping with her friend.
Seeing Sallie's pretty things made her long for such, and pity herself
because she had not got them. Sallie was very kind, and often offered
her the coveted trifles, but Meg declined them, knowing that John
wouldn't like it, and then this foolish little woman went and did what
John disliked even worse.

She knew her husband's income, and she loved to feel that he trusted
her, not only with his happiness, but what some men seem to value
more--his money. She knew where it was, was free to take what she
liked, and all he asked was that she should keep account of every
penny, pay bills once a month, and remember that she was a poor man's
wife. Till now she had done well, been prudent and exact, kept her
little account books neatly, and showed them to him monthly without
fear. But that autumn the serpent got into Meg's paradise, and tempted
her like many a modern Eve, not with apples, but with dress. Meg
didn't like to be pitied and made to feel poor. It irritated her, but
she was ashamed to confess it, and now and then she tried to console
herself by buying something pretty, so that Sallie needn't think she
had to economize. She always felt wicked after it, for the pretty
things were seldom necessaries, but then they cost so little, it wasn't
worth worrying about, so the trifles increased unconsciously, and in
the shopping excursions she was no longer a passive looker-on.

But the trifles cost more than one would imagine, and when she cast up
her accounts at the end of the month the sum total rather scared her.
John was busy that month and left the bills to her, the next month he
was absent, but the third he had a grand quarterly settling up, and Meg
never forgot it. A few days before she had done a dreadful thing, and
it weighed upon her conscience. Sallie had been buying silks, and Meg
longed for a new one, just a handsome light one for parties, her black
silk was so common, and thin things for evening wear were only proper
for girls. Aunt March usually gave the sisters a present of
twenty-five dollars apiece at New Year's. That was only a month to
wait, and here was a lovely violet silk going at a bargain, and s