There came, now, to be a sort of tacit emulation of good offices between the wife and husband, who had, for so many years, lived in a state of partial indifference.  Mr. Uhler urged the procuring of a domestic, in place of the girl who had left them, but Mrs. Uhler said no—­their circumstances would not justify the expense.  Mr. Uhler said they could very well afford it, and intimated something about an expected advance in his salary.

“I do not wish to see you a mere household drudge,” he said to her one day, a few weeks after the change just noted.  “You know so well how every thing ought to be done, that the office of director alone should be yours.  I think there is a brighter day coming for us.  I hope so.  From the first of next month, my salary is to be increased to a thousand dollars.  Then we will move from this poor place, into a better home.”

There was a blending of hopefulness and tenderness in the voice of Mr. Uhler, that touched his wife deeply.  Overcome by her feelings, she laid her face upon his bosom, and wept.

“Whether the day be brighter or darker,” she said, when she could speak calmly, “God helping me, I will be to you a true wife, Herman.  If there be clouds and storms without, the hearth shall only burn the brighter for you within.  Forgive me for the past, dear husband! and have faith in me for the future.  You shall not be disappointed.”

And he was not.  Mrs. Uhler had discovered her true relation, and had become conscious of her true duties.  She was no longer jealous of her own rights, and therefore never trespassed on the rights of her husband.

The rapidity with which Mr. Uhler rose to his old position in business, sometimes caused a feeling of wonder to pervade the mind of his wife.  From a clerk of one thousand, he soon came into the receipt of two thousand a year, then rose to be a partner in the business, and in a singularly short period was a man of wealth.  Mrs. Uhler was puzzled, sometimes, at this, and so were other people.  It was even hinted, that he had never been as poor as was pretended.  Be that as it may, as he never afterwards trusted important matters to the discretion of irresponsible clerks, his business operations went on prosperously; and, on the other hand, as Mrs. Uhler never again left the comfort and health of her family entirely in the hands of ignorant and careless domestics, the home of her husband was the pleasantest place in the world for him, and his wife, not a mere upper servant, but a loving and intelligent companion, whom he cared for and cherished with the utmost tenderness.

THE HUMBLED PHARISEE.

“What was that?” exclaimed Mrs. Andrews, to the lady who was seated next to her, as a single strain of music vibrated for a few moments on the atmosphere.

“A violin, I suppose,” was answered.

“A violin!” An expression almost of horror came into the countenance of Mrs. Andrews.  “It can’t be possible.”