The
expenses of his wife's confinement were heavy, and he was obliged to
trench upon his savings, but he had no doubt about soon recouping
this, now that Ellen was herself again; for a time indeed his business
did revive a little, nevertheless it seemed as though the interruption
to his prosperity had in some way broken the spell of good luck
which had attended him in the outset; he was still sanguine,
however, and worked night and day with a will, but there was no more
music, or reading, or writing now. His Sunday outings were put a
stop to, and but for the first floor being let to myself, he would
have lost his citadel there too, but he seldom used it, for Ellen
had to wait more and more upon the baby, and, as a consequence, Ernest
had to wait more and more upon Ellen.
One afternoon, about a couple of months after the baby had been
born, and just as my unhappy hero was beginning to feel more hopeful
and therefore better able to bear his burdens, he returned from a
sale, and found Ellen in the same hysterical condition that he had
found her in spring. She said she was again with child, and Ernest
still believed her.
All the troubles of the preceding six months began again then and
there, and grew worse and worse continually.
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