"
"I'll try and live, for your sake, Henry," said his wife.
"Think of my worry every time you are ill," pursued the indignant Mr.
Gribble.
Mrs. Gribble sighed, and her husband, after a few further remarks
concerning Uncle George, his past and his future, announced his
intention of going to the lawyers and seeing whether anything could be
done. He came back in a state of voiceless gloom, and spent the rest of
a beautiful day indoors, smoking a pipe which had lost much of its
flavour, and regarding with a critical and anxious eye the small, weedy
figure of his wife as she went about her work.
The second month's payment went into his pocket as a matter of course,
but on this occasion Mrs. Gribble made no requests for new clothes or
change of residence. A little nervous cough was her sole comment.
"Got a cold?" inquired her husband, starting.
"I don't think so," replied his wife, and, surprised and touched at this
unusual display of interest, coughed again.
"Is it your throat or your chest?" he inquired, gruffly.
Mrs. Gribble coughed again to see. After five coughs she said she
thought it was her chest.
"You'd better not go out o' doors to-day, then," said Mr.
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