“Are you better, dear?” tenderly inquired Mrs. Ellis.

“Yes, a good deal better,” was answered.  And the words were truly spoken; for this unlooked-for, kind, even tender reception, had wrought an almost instantaneous change.  He had come home with a feeling of despair tugging at his heart.  Nothing appeared before him but ruin.  Now the light of hope, feeble though were the rays, came glimmering across the darkness of his spirit.

“I am glad to hear it!” was the warm response of Cara.  “Oh! it is so wrong for you to neglect your meals.  You confine yourself too closely to business.  I wanted you to come home to-day particularly, for I had prepared for you, just in the way you like it, such a nice dish of maccaroni.”

“It was very thoughtful in you, dear.  I wish I had been at home to enjoy it with you.”

Tea being announced, Mrs. Ellis arose and said: 

“Come; supper is on the table.  You must break your long fast.”

“First let me wash my hands and face,” returned Ellis, who wished to gain time, as well as use all the means, to restore his countenance to a better expression than it wore, ere meeting Cara under the glare of strong lamp light.

A basin was filled for him by his wife, and, after washing his hands and face, he left the chamber with her, and went to the dining-room.  Here Cara got a distinct view of her husband’s countenance.  Many lines of the passion and suffering written there during that, to him, ever-to-be-remembered day, were still visible, and, as Cara read them without comprehending their import, a vague fear came hovering over her heart.  Instantly her thoughts turned to what she had been doing, and most sincerely did she repent of the act.

“I will confess it to him, this very night,” such was her mental resolution,—­“and promise, hereafter never to do aught against his wishes.”

Notwithstanding Ellis had taken no dinner, he had little appetite for his evening meal; and the concern of his wife was increased on observing that he merely tasted his food and sipped his tea.

The more than ordinary trouble evinced, as well in the whole manner of Ellis as in the expression of his face and in the tones of his voice, oppressed the heart of Cara.  She felt that something more than usual must have occurred to disturb him.  Could it be possible that any thing was wrong in his business?  The thought caused a low thrill to tremble along her nerves.  He had frequently spoken of his affairs as not very prosperous; was always, in fact, making a “sort of a poor mouth.”  But all this she had understood as meant for effect—­as a cover for his opposition to her wish to spend.  What if it were all as he had represented?

Such thoughts could not but sober the mind of Mrs. Ellis, and caused her manner towards her husband to assume an air of tenderness and concern to which it had too long been a stranger.  How quickly was this felt by Ellis!  How gratefully did his heart respond to his wife’s gentler touches on its tensely strung chords!