Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/86

78 "Nonsense, wife! We have not yet got above our relations' working for their living, though you may not be obliged to. Why can't your mother take a boarding-house, and then Helen Maria might assist her?"

"Oh! Helen Maria can't do any kind of housework; besides, she is delicate, you know. Now mother was brought up to it; and when I proposed a boarding-house, she said if she had any security to offer for her rent—"

"Ah! there's the rub! I hope she don't expect me to offer; for you know, my dear, I make it an invariable rule never to endorse, but in the way of business, for those who endorse for me." "What is to be done, husband, if she can't get into any way of supporting herself? She must live, you know."

"And I must support her, hey?"

"No, I did not say that; but we can't let her suffer. What would people say?—there are always enough to talk, you know."

"Yes, yes: well, I suppose I must advance the first quarter's rent, or something towards it. Oh! a thought strikes me; I know a house that will just suit, belonging to some old maid or widow, or somebody that lives up the country. The man that has the care of it ain't particular about security. I'll make the bargain for her—save her at least a hundred dollars. That's just as good to her as if I took the money out of my purse and put it into hers. I am glad to do your mother a good turn now and then in this way. I ain't one that holds to shirking poor relations."

"Nor I, I am sure, and I told mother so;