Margarita Spalding Gerry

“ I never clapped my hands for joy in my life, and I never saw anybody else do it. When I'm awfully pleased about anything, what I'm really liable to do is to kiss Harry. So whenever I say I clapped my hands, from force of habit, you can understand what I really mean. I can't take the time to be sure about every little detail.
We had great fun looking at the bonds, perhaps for the last time, and I couldn't sleep for thinking of all the ways I wanted to spend that money. Spending money had always seemed the most fascinating thing in the world to me. ”

“ And my heart did sink, for though a car was the first thing I had thought of—and still I wasn't sure—it is a very different thing when a woman wants a car and when a man does, I tell you. A woman wants one just for use, and is perfectly willing to use a car two years. But with a man! Well, it is just the beginning of the end. That car gets to represent the reputation of the family, and it has to be a new one every year, with limousine top and all the attachments; and now that they have got a twelve-cylinder, of course Harry would have to have that. ”

“ This was like the stories I used to imagine when I was a child: how it would be to be the only person in the world, and be able to go into all the candy-shops and toy-shops and get everything you wanted without having to ask permission of anybody at all. ”

“ Harry stopped, and looked up and down the misty street. He didn't finish, for even in the dusk we could see the baby-carriages at every place. Even next door the bassinet had merely been put on an upper sleeping-porch, and I could hear the baby gurgle. ”

“ I had done it several times when I heard the agent saying:
"This little safe-deposit is just the place to put valuable diamonds, money, stocks, bonds—" and that made me think of Uncle 'Bial's gift.
"Oh, where are they?"
Harry understood right away. Harry always does understand. But there! If I get to talking about Harry I never will get anything else said. All the girls say they just give up when I begin. Marie says she tried to make the same remark five times in succession and that I just stared her down and kept on talking about Harry. ”

“ We always seemed to spend a lot of money; money was always just coming in or going out. I don't believe we ever had anything saved up but life insurance, because that was easy to borrow money on—and, oh yes, I remember that father might once have had some kind of a position that would have paid a lot only he couldn't get anybody to go on his bond. Harry says that isn't the same kind of bond as Uncle 'Bial's. But, anyway, it took my breath away when he said that Uncle 'Bial had left him four one-thousand-dollar bonds. ”

“ And then we had a really sentimental moment, and Harry's eyes looked misty, and he said, "Perhaps that was what the dear old fellow meant."
I'd be ashamed to tell what train we took to get into town. It was dark then, so we just took hands and danced up and down.
"Oh, Harry!" I said. "We are going to be solid people—"
"And vote," said Harry. "This is only the beginning. And be on the school board—"
"With a lawn-mower and a fountain-spray—"
"And a pew in church. And subscribe to charities!" Harry made a little face, but he didn't really mean it. ”

“ And, oh, it was so sure and safe somehow, in our little apartment, with Harry so—so—reliable on the other side of the reading-table, with the bonds in the cubby, that I—oh, I don't know how to say it—I suppose I just turned and sunned myself as a cat does.
One evening Harry, who had been very thoughtful for some time, said, "Now, Childer, I suppose we ought to talk about what we are going to do about the bonds."
I jumped. "But then we wouldn't have them in the cubby. Do we have to do anything with them?" Honestly, it seemed to me that it would be dangerous to get along without them. ”

“ The upshot of it is that he has thrown some fat business into the firm. Nice men that take these local trains, you know, Childer; men that have an interest in local boards, and vote, and all that—solid people, you know—"
Local trains again. All my pleasure went. I didn't sleep much that night.
When Harry called me up from downtown the next afternoon and asked me if I wouldn't like to motor, I was pretty snappish. Here it was the third of June. I saw it all. He was going to take me out in the car he had bought and tell me that was what he had chosen. ”

“ Oh, Harry! Wouldn't it be enough, just what we have saved? And couldn't we keep them here—Uncle 'Bial's bonds—and have a new cubby built in back of the book-shelves here, and keep them? I'd feel so lonesome without them! And they made me feel so safe. And it's so fascinating to sell our eggs every six months. Could we? ”