ost to "make good" in Honey's eyes.

The Skinners had a little bank account for which they had skimped and
saved. Honey had denied herself new gowns, and Skinner had gone her one
better. If she would not spend money on herself, then he would not spend
money on himself. He had gone positively shabby. But Skinner did n't
mind being shabby. The sacrifice he was making for Honey and the bank
account, the self-denial of it, had exalted his shabbiness into something
fine,--had idealized it,--until he'd come to take a kind of religious
pride in it. Skinner and his wife had watched their little bank account
grow, bit by bit, from ten dollars up. It had become an obsession with
them. They had gone without many little things dear to their hearts that
it might be fattened. Surely, it was a greedy creature! But, unlike
most greedy creatures, it gave them a great deal of comfort. It was a
certain solid something, always in the background of their consciousness.
It stood between them and the dread of destitution. Thus it had become a
sacred thing, and they had tacitly agreed never to touch it.

But what made it imperative for Skinner to ask for a raise was, he had
been bragging. Skinner was only human, and being a hero to his wife had
made him a little vain. He was a modest man, a first-rate fellow, but no
man is proof against hero-worship. He had bragged--a little at
first--about his value to the firm, which had increased the worship. He
had given his wife the idea that he was a most important man in
McLaughlin & Perkins, Inc., that he had only to suggest a raise in order
to get it. They could n't do without him.

Several times Honey had hinted to Skinner that the firm was slow to show
its appreciation of his indispensable qualities; but on such occasions
Skinner had urged that the psychological moment had not yet arrived, that
the wave of prosperity that was spreading over the country had not up to
the moment engulfed his particular firm. But one evening, he
ill-advisedly admitted that the waves of the aforesaid prosperity were
beginning to lap the doorstep of McLaughlin & Perkins, Inc. That was
enough! Next morning Honey gently urged that further delay would be
inexcusable, that the bank account was n't growing fast enough to suit
her, that he must ask for a raise.

Now that Honey had put it up to him to "make good,"--to act,--doubt
entered Skinner's heart. He argued that, if the firm had considered him
wor