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THE BRIDAL CAMP
189

He said, playing with her hair and pulling a strand lightly to tease her: "I believe you've got married with no more plan than you took in town with you that day—our day. You just went to town; and you just married, didn't you?"

"You think I ought always have a definite plan, David?" she questioned him, seriously.

"No," denied David, delighted with her. "Never, if you don't want to."

"You see, I know what I'll have every month," Fidelia sought to explain herself, "but I don't know about you. I get three hundred dollars a month, David; or I can get it, if I want to."

"You mean you don't always draw it?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

"No. Mr. Jessop keeps the extra for me, if ever I need it."

"I see," said David. "Well, we'll have out of the business, if sales keep on as they've started, about five or six hundred a month. But I've a personal debt of ten thousand dollars, Fidelia; it's all right for it's capital investment but it was put up for me by a man named Fuller, who lives in Itanaca; and of course I've got to pay interest on that first of all. And I must keep on sending money to my mother."

"Oh, David, can't we send more?"

"More!" said David, pleased and amused. "You don't know how much we send now, do you?"

"No; but I saw that dress—your mother's dress which your sister sent up, don't you remember? Somebody'd given it to her and she'd worn it until—" Fidelia's eyes filled. "I couldn't forget that dress,