ed
to rest. Rest, indeed, he did not find. An invisible power drew the
pillows from under his head. This bed, this house, everything, would
to-morrow be no longer his! His thoughts lingered most lovingly about
the carriage and the two bay horses. Suddenly the bays seemed to have
entered the chamber; he rubbed his eyes; there they were, stretching
their heads over the bed, and glaring at him with their great eyes; he
felt their hot breath on his face. Recovering his self-possession, he
comforted himself with the thought that he had, at least, borne himself
like a man. He had said nothing to his wife, but let her have a quiet
night's sleep. To-morrow morning would be soon enough for her to learn
the news, even to-morrow after breakfast. Trials are easier to bear in
the broad sunlight, after a night's sleep and a-good breakfast.

When the daylight came, the landlord was tired, and begged his wife not
to wait for him, but to take her breakfast alone. At last he appeared,
seemed to be in excellent appetite, and, on his wife urging him to
explain what arrangement had been made, finally confessed: "Wife, I
have allowed you to have a quiet night and comfortable morning; now
show yourself brave, and take whatever comes quietly and calmly. At
this very hour my lawyer in the city is proclaiming me bankrupt."

The landlady sat for a time stiff and speechless. "Why did you not tell
me last night?" she asked, at length.

"From kindness to you, that you might have a quiet night's rest."

"Kindness? You stupid blockhead! If you had told me last night, we
might have sent off many an article that would stand us in stead for
years to come. Now, in this broad daylight, it is too late. Here! here!
help! help!" she cried, breaking from her quiet conversational tone
into frightful screams, and sinking, half fainting, in her chair. The
maids from the kitchen, and Gregory, the postilion, came rushing in.
The landlady raised herself, and cried, in the most piteous tones: "You
deceived me; you never told me you were near being bankrupt. On your
head be all the sorrow and the shame. I am innocent! Unhappy woman that
I am!"

It would now have been the landlord's turn to fall into a fainting fit,
had not his strength of body and mind supported him. His spectacles
fell of themselves from his forehead to his eyes, that he might plainly
behold the farce that was acting before him. This woman, who had given
him no peace till he, the successful bake