However, when I recovered from the first effects of the blow I
looked the situation squarely in the face, and was content with a stray
crumb which fell from the opposition table. I had still some influence
to command, and after superhuman exertion managed to secure a
twelve-hundred-dollar clerkship.
"My wife, always cheerful under the most trying circumstances, was fully
equal to this occasion.
"'Well, my love,' said she, 'of course we must give up everything here,
and that will be a little trying for a while, I'll admit, but we should
be thankful that you are not thrown out altogether,' adding with a tinge
of melancholy, 'I don't think, though, that I could bear to live in
Washington after the change. Suppose we try A---- for a while.'
"A---- is over in Maryland, about six miles from town, and very
convenient trains are run between the two places. One can live quite
comfortably there for very little, so my wife's suggestion was quickly
adopted.
"'It reminds me of dear, dear Salem,' she said some weeks later, 'and
rents are so cheap. Think of the ridiculously small price we pay for
this house.'
"'Suspiciously small, you mean,' said I gloomily, not at all reconciled
to my wife's choice of abode. But as my feeble protest was treated with
silence I held my peace. 'Anything for a quiet life' has ever been a
favorite conceit with me.
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