en
when he had written wholly against her taste and wish. He was not to let
his pride keep him from doing this, though, as a general thing, she took
a good deal of pride in his pride, having none herself, as she believed.
Whether she had or not, she was very wilful, and rather prepotent; but
she never bore malice, as the phrase is, when she got the worst of
anything, though she might have been quite to blame. She had in all
things a high ideal of conduct, which she expected her husband to live
up to when she was the prey of adverse circumstances. At other times
she did her share of the common endeavor.

All through the month of October he worked at the new play, and from
time to time they heard from the old play, which Godolphin was still
giving, here and there, in the West. He had not made any reply to
Maxwell's letter of regret that he could not come to the rehearsals at
Chicago, but he sent the notices marked in the newspapers, at the
various points where he played, and the Maxwells contented themselves as
they could with these proofs of an unbroken amity. They expected
something more direct and explicit from him when he should get to
Chicago, where his engagement was to begin the first week in November.
In the meantime the kind of life they were living had not that stressful
unreality for Louise that it had for Maxwell on the economic side. For
the first time his regular and serious habits of work did not mean the
earning of money, but only the chance of earning money. Ever since he
had begun the world for himself, and he had begun it very early, there
had been some income from his industry; however little it was, it was
certain; the salary was there for him at the end of the week when he
went to the cashier's desk. His mother and he had both done so well and
so wisely in their several ways of taking care of themselves, that
Maxwell had not only been able to live on his earnings, but he had been
able to save out of them the thousand dollars which Louise bragged of to
her father, and it was this store which they were now consuming, not
rapidly, indeed, but steadily, and with no immediate return in money to
repair the waste. The fact kept Maxwell wakeful at night sometimes, and
by day he shuddered inwardly at the shrinkage of his savings, so much
swifter than their growth, though he was generously abetted by Louise in
using them with frugality. She could always have had money from her
father, but this was something th