helen denby had never doubted her ability to be a perfect wife. as a girl, her vision had pictured a beauteous creature moving through a glorified world of love and admiration, ease and affluence.
later, at the time of her marriage to burke denby, her vision had altered sufficiently to present a picture of herself as the sweet good-angel of the old denby mansion, the forgiving young wife who lays up no malice against an unappreciative father-in-law. even when, still later (upon their return from their wedding trip and upon her learning of john denby's decree of banishment), the vision was necessarily warped and twisted all out of semblance to its original outlines, there yet remained unchanged the basic idea of perfect wifehood.
helen saw herself now as the martyr wife whose superb courage and self-sacrifice were to be the stepping-stones of a husband's magnificent success. she would be guide, counselor, and friend. (somewhere she had seen those words. she liked them very much.) unswervingly she would hold burke to his high purpose. untiringly she would lead him ever toward his goal of "making good."
she saw herself the sweet, loving wife, graciously presiding over the well-kept home, always ready,[pg 62] daintily gowned, to welcome his coming with a kiss, and to speed his going with a blessing. then, when in due course he had won out, great would be her reward. with what sweet pride and gentle dignity would she accept the laurel wreath of praise (helen had seen this expression somewhere, too, and liked it), which a remorseful but grateful world would hasten to lay at the feet of her who alone had made possible the splendid victory—the once despised, flouted wife—the wife who was to drag him down!
it was a pleasant picture, and helen frequently dwelt upon it—especially the sweet-and-gentle-dignity-wife part. she found it particularly soothing during those first early days of housekeeping in the new apartment.
not that she was beginning in the least to doubt her ability to be that perfect wife. it was only that to think of things as they would be was a pleasant distraction from thinking of things as they were. but of course it would be all right very soon, anyway,—just as soon as everything got nicely to running.
helen did wonder sometimes why the getting of "everything nicely to running" was so difficult. that a certain amount of training and experience was necessary to bring about the best results never occurred to her. if helen had been asked to take a position as stenographer or church soloist, she would have replied at once that she did not know how to do the work. into the position of home-maker, however,[pg 63] she stepped with cheerful confidence, her eyes only on the wonderful success she was going to make.
to helen housekeeping was something like a clock that you wound up in the morning to run all day. and even when at the end of a week she could not help seeing that not once yet had she got around to being the "sweet, daintily gowned wife welcoming her husband to a well-kept home," before that husband appeared at the door, she still did not doubt her own capabilities. it was only that "things hadn't got to running yet." and it was always somebody else's fault, anyway,—frequently her husband's. for if he did not come to dinner too early, before a thing was done, he was sure to be late, and thus spoil everything by her trying to keep things hot for him. and, of course, under such circumstances, nobody could expect one to be a sweet and daintily gowned wife!
besides, there was the cookbook.
"do you know, burke," she finally wailed one night, between sobs, "i don't believe it's good for a thing—that old cookbook! i haven't got a thing out of it yet that's been real good. i've half a mind to take it back where i got it, and make them change it, or else give me back my money. i have, so there!"
"but, dearie," began her husband doubtfully, "you said yourself yesterday that you forgot the salt in the omelet, and the baking powder in the cake, and—"
"well, what if i did?" she contended aggrievedly.[pg 64] "what's a little salt or baking powder? 'twasn't but a pinch or a spoonful, anyhow, and i remembered all the other things. besides, if those rules were any good they'd be worded so i couldn't forget part of the things. and, anyhow, i don't think it's very nice of you to b-blame me all the time when i'm doing the very best i can. i told you i couldn't cook, but you said you'd like anything i made, because i did it, and—"
"yes, yes, darling, and so i do," interrupted the remorseful husband, hurriedly. and, to prove it, he ate the last scrap of the unappetizing concoction on his plate, which his wife said was a fish croquette. afterwards still further to show his remorse, he helped her wash the dishes and set the rooms in order. then together they went for a walk in the moonlight.
it was a beautiful walk, and it quite restored helen to good nature. they went up on west hill (where helen particularly loved to go), and they laid wonderful plans of how one day they, too, would build a big stone palace of a home up there—though burke did say that, for his part, he liked elm hill quite as well; but helen laughed him out of that "old-fashioned idea." at least he said no more about it.
they talked much of how proud burke's father was going to be when burke had made good, and of how ashamed and sorry he would be that he had so misjudged his son's wife. and helen uttered some very sweet and beautiful sentiments concerning her[pg 65] intention of laying up no malice, her firm determination to be loving and forgiving.
then together they walked home in the moonlight; and so thrilled and exalted were they that even the cheap little dale street living-room looked wonderfully dear. and helen said that, after all, love was the only thing that mattered—that they just loved each other. and burke said, "yes, yes, indeed."
the vision of the sweet, daintily gowned wife and the perfect home was very clear to helen as she dropped off to sleep that night; and she was sure that she could begin to realize it at once. but unfortunately she overslept the next morning—which was really burke's fault, as she said, for he forgot to wind the alarm clock, and she was not used to getting up at such an unearthly hour, anyway, and she did not see why he had to do it, for that matter—he was really the son of the owner, even if he was called an apprentice.
this did not help matters any, for burke never liked any reference to his position at the works. to be sure, he did not say much, this time, except to observe stiffly that he would like his breakfast, if she would be so good as to get it—as if she were not already hurrying as fast as she could, and herself only half-dressed at that!
of course the breakfast was a failure. helen said that perhaps some people could get a meal of victuals on to the table, with a hungry man eyeing their every[pg 66] move, but she could not. burke declared then that he really did not want any breakfast anyway, and he started to go; but as helen only cried the more at this, he had to come back and comfort her—thereby, in the end, being both breakfastless and late to his work.
helen, after he had gone, spent a blissfully wretched ten minutes weeping over the sad fate that should doom such a child of light and laughter as herself to the somber rôle of martyr wife, and wondered if, after all, it would not be really more impressive and more soul-torturing-with-remorse for the cruel father-in-law, if she should take poison, or gas, or something (not disfiguring), and lay herself calmly down to die, her beautiful hands crossed meekly upon her bosom.
attractive as was this picture in some respects, it yet had its drawbacks. then, too, there was the laurel wreath of praise due her later. she had almost forgotten that. on the whole, that would be preferable to the poison, helen decided, as she began, with really cheerful alacrity, to attack the messy breakfast dishes.
it was not alone the cooking that troubled the young wife during that first month of housekeeping. everywhere she found pitfalls for her unwary feet, from managing the kitchen range to keeping the living-room dusted.
and there was the money.
helen's idea of money, in her happy, care-free girlhood,[pg 67] had been that it was one of the common necessities of life; and she accepted it as she did the sunshine—something she was entitled to; something everybody had. she learned the fallacy of this, of course, when she attempted to earn her own living; but in marrying the son of the rich john denby, she had expected to step back into the sunshine, as it were. it was not easy now to adjust herself to the change.
she did not like the idea of asking for every penny she spent, and it seemed as if she was always having to ask burke for money; and, though he invariably handed it over with a nervously quick, "why, yes, certainly! i don't mean you to have to ask for it, helen"; yet she thought she detected a growing irritation in his manner each time. and on the last occasion he had added a dismayed "but i hadn't any idea you could have got out so soon as this again!" and it made her feel very uncomfortable indeed.
as if she were to blame that it took so much butter and coffee and sugar and stuff just to get three meals a day! and as if it were her fault that that horrid cookbook was always calling for something she did not have, like mace, or summer savory, or thyme, and she had to run out and buy a pound of it! didn't he suppose it took some money to stock up with things, when one hadn't a thing to begin with?
helen had been on the point of saying something of this sort to her husband, simply as a matter of[pg 68] self-justification, when there unexpectedly came a most delightful solution of her difficulty.
it was the grocer who pointed the way.
"why don't you open an account with us, mrs. denby?" he asked smilingly one day, in reply to her usual excuse that she could not buy something because she did not have the money to pay for it.
"an account? what's that? that wouldn't make me have any more money, would it? father was always talking about accounts—good ones and bad ones. he kept a store, you know. but i never knew what they were, exactly. i never thought of asking. i never had to pay any attention to money at home. what is an account? how can i get one?"
"why, you give your orders as usual, but let the payment go until the end of the month," smiled the grocer. "we'll charge it—note it down, you know—then send the bill to your husband."
"and i won't have to ask him for any money?"
"not to pay us." the man's lips twitched a little.
"oh, that would be just grand," she sighed longingly. "i'd like that. and it's something the way we're buying our furniture, isn't it?—installments, you know."
the grocer's lips twitched again.
"er—y-yes, only we send a bill for the entire month."
"and he pays it? oh, i see. that's just grand! and he'd like it all right, wouldn't he?—because of course he'd have to pay some time, anyhow. and[pg 69] this way he wouldn't have to have me bothering him so much all the time asking for money. oh, thank you. you're very kind. i think i will do that way if you don't mind."
"we shall be glad to have you, mrs. denby. so we'll call that settled. and now you can begin right away this morning."
"and can i get those canned peaches and pears and plums, and the grape jelly that i first looked at?"
"certainly—if you decide you want 'em," mumbled the grocer, throwing the last six words as a sop to his conscience which was beginning to stir unpleasantly.
"oh, yes, i want 'em," averred helen, her eager eyes sweeping the alluringly laden shelves before her. "i wanted them all the time, you know, only i didn't have enough money to pay for them. now it'll be all right because burke'll pay—i mean, mr. denby," she corrected with a conscious blush, suddenly remembering what her husband had said the night before about her calling him "burke" so much to strangers.
helen found she wanted not only the fruits and jelly, but several other cans of soups, meats, and vegetables. and it was such a comfort, for once, to select what she wanted, and not have to count up the money in her purse! she was radiantly happy when she went home from market that morning (instead of being tired and worried as was usually the case); and the glow on her face lasted all through the[pg 70] day and into the evening—so much so that even burke must have noticed it, for he told her he did not know when he had seen her looking so pretty. and he gave her an extra kiss or two when he greeted her.
the second month of housekeeping proved to be a great improvement over the first. it was early in that month that helen learned the joy and comfort of having "an account" at her grocer's. and she soon discovered that not yet had she probed this delight to its depths, for not only the grocer, but the fishman and the butcher were equally kind, and allowed her to open accounts with them. coincident with this came the discovery that there were such institutions as bakeries and delicatessen shops, which seemed to have been designed especially to meet the needs of just such harassed little martyr housewives as she herself was; for in them one might buy bread and cakes and pies and even salads and cold meats, and fish balls. one might, indeed, with these delectable organizations at hand, snap one's fingers at all the cookbooks in the world—cookbooks that so miserably failed to cook!
the baker and the little dutch delicatessen man, too (when they found out who she was), expressed themselves as delighted to open an account; and with the disagreeable necessity eliminated of paying on the spot for what one ordered, and with so great an assortment of ready-to-eat foods to select from, helen found her meal-getting that second month a much simpler matter.[pg 71]
then, too, helen was much happier now that she did not have to ask her husband for money. she accepted what he gave her, and thanked him; but she said nothing about her new method of finance.
"i'm going to keep it secret till the stores send him the bills," said helen to herself. "then i'll show him what a lot i've saved from what he has given me, and he'll be so glad to pay things all at once without being bothered with my everlasting teasing!"
she only smiled, therefore, enigmatically, when he said one day, as he passed over the money:—
"jove, girl! i quite forgot. you must be getting low. but i'm glad you didn't have to ask me for it, anyhow!"
ask him for it, indeed! how pleased he would be when he found out that she was never going to ask him for money again!
helen was meaning to be very economical these days. when she went to market she always saw several things she would have liked, that she did not get, for of course she wanted to make the bills as small as she could. naturally burke would wish her to do that. she tried to save, too, a good deal of the money burke gave her; but that was not always possible, for there were her own personal expenses. true, she did not need many clothes—but she was able to pick up a few bargains in bows and collars (one always needed fresh neckwear, of course); and she found some lovely silk stockings, too, that were very cheap, so she bought several pairs—to save money. and[pg 72] of course there were always car-fares and a soda now and then, or a little candy.
there were the "movies" too. she had fallen into the way of going rather frequently to the empire with her neighbor on the same floor. it did her good, and got her out of herself. (she had read only recently how every wife should have some recreation; it was a duty she owed herself and her husband—to keep herself youthful and attractive.) she got lonesome and nervous, sitting at home all day; and now that she had systematized her housekeeping so beautifully by buying almost everything all cooked, she had plenty of leisure. of course she would have preferred to go to the olympia theater. they had a stock company there, and real plays. but their cheapest seats were twenty-five cents, while she might go to the empire for ten. so very bravely she put aside her expensive longings, and chose the better part—economy and the movies. besides, mrs. jones, the neighbor on the same floor, said that, for her part, she liked the movies the best,—you got "such a powerful lot more for your dough."
mrs. jones always had something bright and original like that to say—helen liked her very much! indeed, she told burke one day that mrs. jones was almost as good as a movie show herself. burke, however, did not seem to care for mrs. jones. for that matter, he did not care for the movies, either.
no matter where helen went in the afternoon, she was always very careful to be at home before burke.[pg 73] she hoped she knew what pertained to being a perfect wife better than to be careless about matters like that! mrs. jones was not always so particular in regard to her husband—which only served to give helen a pleasant, warm little feeling of superiority at the difference.
perhaps mrs. jones detected the superiority, for sometimes she laughed, and said:—
"all right, we'll go if you must; but you'll soon get over it. this lovey-dovey-i'm-right-here-hubby business is all very well for a while, but—you wait!"
"all right, i'm waiting. but—you see!" helen always laughed back, bridling prettily.
hurrying home from shopping or the theater, therefore, helen always stopped and got her potato salad and cold meat, or whatever else she needed. and the meal was invariably on the table before burke's key sounded in the lock.
helen was, indeed, feeling quite as if she were beginning to realize her vision now. was she not each night the loving, daintily gowned wife welcoming her husband to a well-ordered, attractive home? there was even quite frequently a bouquet of flowers on the dinner table. somewhere she had read that flowers always added much to a meal; and since then she had bought them when she felt that she could afford them. and in the market there were almost always some cheap ones, only a little faded. of course, she never bought the fresh, expensive ones.
after dinner there was the long evening together.[pg 74] sometimes they went to walk, after the dishes were done—burke had learned to dry dishes beautifully. more often they stayed at home and played games, or read—burke was always wanting to read. sometimes they just talked, laying wonderful plans about the fine new house they were going to build. now that helen did not have to ask burke for money, there did not seem to be so many occasions when he was fretful and nervous; and they were much happier together.
all things considered, therefore, helen felt, indeed, before this second month of housekeeping was over, that she had now "got things nicely to running."[pg 75]
